1850’s Clothing

Aristocracy Clothing for men and women, Day and night

Women’s clothing

• Dresses• Layers• Accessories

The mid-nineteenth century lady was a vision of elegance and grace in beautiful gowns lavishly trimmed with frills, flounces, lace, braid, fringe, ruche and ribbons. The fashion conscious Victorian lady created this appearance with a mysterious combination of the ‘uncomfortable and inconvenient’ with the ‘frivolous and decorative’. Numerous heavy petticoats, layers of underclothes, metal hoops, tight corsets under-pointed boned bodices of whale-bone and steel were hidden by an array of ornately accented undersleeves, collars, pelerines, fans, gloves, hats, and parasols. The finished look was of elegance and grace with an illusion of ease and comfort.

Dresses• The typical Victorian dress for the

aristocracy was a silk dress with sloping shoulders and wide pagoda sleeves. The full skirt measures over 2.7m in circumference.

• The dress fabric and colour showed wealth. The more decorative and elegant your dress was, the wealthier you were, and therefore a better status than others.

• Dresses were also used to show off the body. Layers and accessories like the hoopskirts and bustles were used to create a more fuller look to the female body. Making them appear to have a more curvatious body around the boobs and bum. Except the waists were always very tight. A corset is used to pull in the stomach and flatten your appearance.

Layers• Layers of underclothes,

including a chemise, drawers, corset and several petticoats, were worn by mid 19th century women. Before the invention of the ‘cage’ crinoline, a lady would wear as many as a dozen starched and flounced muslin petticoats to support the full skirts of her evening gown. After that, to accommodate the growing wide skirts, ladies donnes a wired cage or hoopskirt.

By the late 1800’s the hoopskirt had disappeared and the the fullness of the skirt was obtained by wearing one or more petticoats. Petticoats often had rows of tucks or lace at the hem to add even more fullness.

Drawers

Petticoat

Chemise

Hoopskirt

Accessories• Shoes:• Soft kid side-lace boots were worn

outdoors. While indoors, Victorian ladies wore heeled flat shoes or slippers.

• Chemisettes:• Chemisettes, trimmed with handmade

lace and embroidery, were worn as an ornamental under-bodice. The front and back were connected at the sides.

• Undersleeves:• Separate undersleeves, often

decorated with lace or broderie anglais, were worn with the wise pagoda or bell-shaped dress sleeves.

• Bonnets:• During the mid 1800’s ladies’ bonnets

were made with a large range of colour. This silk bonnet is created with brown silk, and decorated with purple silk ribbons and re and yellow flowers.

• Parasols:• Silk parasols were popular for strolling.

Often they were decorated with lace, fringe and tassels. This parasol has a folding handle.

Mens clothing

• www.gentlemansemporium.com

• --Ani lange