A History of

Fashion and
Costume
The Victorian
Age
Peter Chrisp
The Victorian Age Library of Congress Cataloging-
in-Publication Data
Copyright © 2005 Bailey Publishing Associates Ltd
Chrisp, Peter.
Produced for Facts On File by A history of fashion and costume.
The Victorian Age/Peter Chrisp.
Bailey Publishing Associates Ltd
p. cm.
11a Woodlands Includes bibliographical references and
Hove BN3 6TJ index.
ISBN 0-8160-5949-7
Project Manager: Roberta Bailey 1. Clothing and dress—Great
Editor: Alex Woolf Britain—History—19th century.
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Contents
Introduction 5

Chapter 1: Early Victorian Fashions 6

Chapter 2: The Clothing Industry 16
Chapter 3: The Stages of Life 30
Chapter 4: Occasional Clothes 34
Chapter 5: Working Clothes 38
Chapter 6: Late Victorian Fashions: 1860–1901 52

Timeline 60
Glossary 61
Further Information 62
Index 64
Introduction
The British queen,Victoria, has given her name to the era
between 1837 and 1901, the years of her reign, the longest of
any British ruler.The Victorian era was a period of world as
well as British history, for the queen ruled at a time when
Britain had a vast global empire, including a quarter of the
planet’s population.

It was a time of massive social change. Railroads were built

across America and Europe, where many new industries
developed. Britain led the way in manufacturing, earning the
nickname the “workshop of the world.”The growth of British
industries drew vast numbers of people from the countryside
to rapidly growing towns and cities. Between 1837 and 1901,
the population doubled, from 18.5 to 37 million. By 1901,
three quarters of British people lived in towns and cities.

Clothing was transformed by factory production, and by

new inventions such as the sewing machine. Cheap clothes
could now be mass produced. The period saw the birth of a
true fashion industry, with the first department stores,
fashion magazines, and mail-order catalogs, allowing people
living in Melbourne and San Francisco to follow the latest
European styles.

Just as people have always done, the Victorians used clothes as a

type of language, sending signals to others about their class,
status, and attitudes. In the Victorian age, the language of
clothing was understood by everybody, who could instantly
place someone’s social position by their dress. It was also
international: in Moscow or New York, a Victorian gentleman
could be recognized by his tall silk hat and gold-topped cane.
 Chapter 1: Early Victorian Fashions
t the beginning of the nineteenth century, the
A clothes of men and women were simple and
comfortable.Women wore light, white dresses, with
waists that fell just below the bust.This allowed them to
dress without corsets, which had been worn by women
since the fifteenth century. Men wore knee breeches or
close-fitting trousers, white shirts, waistcoats, and a coat
with a cutaway front and two tails behind.This was
originally an eighteenth-century riding outfit, designed
to free the legs on horseback.

In 1823, when this picture

of a London ball was
made, women still wore
loose, comfortable
dresses.
As fashions changed in the early now came in bright colors,
1820s, the waist of dresses moved decorated with stripes and floral
down to the real position of a patterns. Outdoors, women wore
woman’s waist, allowing corsets, also wide hats trimmed with feathers,
called stays, to be worn again. For the flowers, and ribbons.
rest of the century, all women would
wear corsets. In the 1820s these were In the 1820s, men, like women, used
tightly laced to give a narrow waist, artificial methods to change the shape
contrasting with puffed-out sleeves of their bodies. Fashionable men,
above and wider skirts below. Dresses called dandies, padded their chests
6
 Early Victorian Fashions

and shoulders and wore tight stays.

An 1825 poem by Bernard Cravats
Blackmantle declared, “Each lordly Dandies wore elaborate cravats, large squares of
man his taper waist displays / Combs starched muslin that were folded into bands and
his sweet locks and laces on his stays.” wrapped around the neck to be tied at the front. These
were so full and high that they made it impossible for
Attitudes to Fashion wearers to lower their heads, giving the impression
The nineteenth century was an age that they felt superior to everybody else. An 1828
of satirical cartoons and writings— book, The Art of Tying the Cravat, gave advice on the
works poking fun at the foolishness best knots or bows to use. It might take an hour or
of people’s behavior. Satirists, like the more to arrange the cravat every morning.
cartoonist George Cruikshank, found
plenty to make fun of in the
changing fashions of the day, with the rich people tried to outdo each other
conceited dandies, and ladies with by displaying their wealth.The best
tiny waists.Throughout the Victorian way to show off wealth, wrote
age, every new fashion would be Veblen, was to wear clothes which
similarly mocked. were obviously expensive and could
only be worn for a short time before
The fashionable woman
More than any previous people, the they had to be replaced by a new mocked in this 1825
Victorians were aware of how fashion. Impractical clothes, such as cartoon has just learned
fashions had changed over the course tight corsets, were also perfect, for that she has dropped her
bustle, a layered
of history.Thanks to new public art they showed that the wearer did not undergarment worn to puff
galleries, people could see paintings have to work for a living. out her skirt at the back.
of the rich in the strange-looking
clothes of earlier centuries.This led
to serious attacks on the very idea of
following fashions. In 1882 the writer
Oscar Wilde declared, “From the
sixteenth century to our own day
there is hardly any form of torture
that has not been inflicted on girls,
and endured by women, in
obedience to ... unreasonable and
monstrous Fashion.”

The Victorians were the first people

to study fashion, in an attempt to
understand the underlying causes for
changes in style. In 1899 Theodore
Veblen published The Theory of the
Leisure Class, in which he explained
fashion as a competition in which
7
 Women’s Fashions
A middle- or upper-class Victorian woman’s shoulders, now covered her
woman was not expected to do any whole body, from the neck to the
work, for she had servants to do feet. Shoulders were only revealed by
everything for her. Her role was to be evening dresses worn at balls and
the “chief ornament” of her husband dinner parties.Wide hats, worn until
or of her father’s household. the late 1830s, went out of fashion,
According to the journal The Saturday giving way to narrow bonnets, tied
Review, “It is the woman’s business to under the chin, which covered the
charm and attract and to be kept sides of a woman’s face.
from anything that may spoil the
bloom of her character and tastes.” It was fashionable to look small like
Queen Victoria, who was five feet
Modest Clothing (1.52 m) tall, so women wore flat
The ideal woman of the 1840s was shoes, like slippers.The new dress
The women in this French supposed to be quiet, modest, and shapes also made women look
engraving wear the modest shy. Modesty was reflected in clothing smaller, with tight sleeves, drooping
fashions of the period,
including bonnets which styles. Dresses worn in the daytime, shoulders, and long, narrow waists.
hide their faces. which had previously revealed a Skirts were full and heavy, touching
the floor, so that only the toes of a
woman’s shoes were ever seen.The
preferred colors of the 1840s were
modest dark greens and browns.

Corsets
Beneath her dress, a woman wore
several layers of petticoats and a
tightly laced corset, stiffened with
strips of whalebone, which stretched
from her chest down to her hips.This
was thought to be medically
beneficial, helping to support a
woman’s weak body. A tightly laced
corset was also considered a sign of a
good character. A “loose woman” was
one who behaved in an immoral way.

Tight corsets affected the way that

women moved. According to The
Handbook of the Toilet, published in
1841, “The gait of an English-
woman is generally stiff and
awkward, there being no bend
or elasticity of the body.”
8
 Early Victorian Fashions

A woman of the 1840s in an evening dress, they would sniff their smelling salts, These decorative bottles
revealing her neck and part of her shoulders. and when another woman fainted once held “smelling
salts”—a mixture of
they would revive her by holding the ammonia and perfume,
Tight lacing made breathing difficult bottle under her nose. which irritated the nose
and lungs to stimulate
and led to fainting fits. Such fits were breathing.
fashionable, for they demonstrated Jewelry
that a woman was delicate and In the 1820s, women wore masses of
needed to be looked after. The Girls’ jewelry with their evening dresses,
Book of Diversions, published in the including earrings, necklaces, gold
1840s, offered advice on how to chains with lockets, bracelets, and
faint: “the modes of fainting should armlets. By the 1840s, such display
all be as different as possible and may had come to be seen as vulgar and
be very diverting.” Women carried showy.The modest woman of the
small bottles of “smelling salts” 1840s often wore no more jewelry
suspended from the waist of their than a pair of bracelets and a chain
dresses by chains. If they felt dizzy for her bottle of smelling salts.

Cosmetics
In the early 1800s, women wore rouge makeup on their lips and
cheeks to make themselves look healthy and lively. Respectable
women stopped wearing rouge in the 1830s, preferring to look delicate
and even sickly. The aim was to have what Victorian novels described
as an “interesting pallor.” Many drank vinegar, believing that this would
give them pale skin. Victorian cosmetics were mostly lotions designed
to hide freckles, and white face powders, used sparingly.

9
 Clothes for Men
As women’s clothes were growing
more impractical to wear, men’s
fashions went in the opposite
direction. In the 1840s, men gave up
wearing jackets with tiny waists and
padded shoulders. Bright colors and
stripes were replaced by dark blues,
browns, and blacks.The high cravat,
which took so long to put on,
disappeared, replaced by a ready-
made neckpiece, called a stock, or
ties with simple bows.There was
much less variety of headwear, as
men took to wearing top hats made
of felt and silk.

The Middle Classes

This change in fashion reflected a
larger change in society. The early
nineteenth century saw the rise of
the middle classes—the group who
ranked higher in society than the
working classes, who worked with
their hands, yet were lower than the
upper classes, who inherited their
wealth and did not have to work at
all. The middle classes included men
from a wide range of professions,
including factory owners, bankers,
merchants, engineers, architects, civil
servants, teachers, business managers,
and office workers. What they all
shared was a belief in hard work,
and a desire to be seen as
Canes and Umbrellas respectable gentlemen. They did not
One of the signs of an eighteenth-century gentleman was want to stand out from other men
that he had the right to carry a sword. Although swords by wearing striking clothes, which
went out of fashion in the 1770s, gentlemen found a new they saw as ungentlemanly. They
accessory in the form of a walking stick or cane made of also wanted clothes that were easy
polished wood, such as black ebony, topped with a golden to put on, for they were too busy to
or silver knob. Long umbrellas were also carried by spend half their mornings tying
fashionable men, who used them like walking sticks. cravats or being strapped into
corsets.
10
 Early Victorian Fashions

In the eighteenth century, both men

and women had displayed their
wealth with expensive, colorful
embroidered fabrics, lace trimmings,
jewelry, and impractical clothing such
as high heels and wigs.The Victorian
middle-class man left it to his wife or
daughters to show off his wealth with
expensive dresses, while he pursued
the business of making money.

Conservative
Attitudes
Although men’s fashions continued
to change, such changes took place
much more slowly than the shifts in
women’s fashions. Developments
were usually of minor features, such
as the size of a jacket lapel or the
shape of a top hat. In clothing, most
Victorian men were conservative,
meaning that they resisted change.
They wanted a simple set of rules to
follow about the correct clothes to
wear for different occasions, such as
A fashionable
going to work or calling on friends young man of the
for tea.These were provided for them 1840s, wearing a
frock coat and a
by books of etiquette (rules of polite
top hat.
behavior).

The middle classes admired the upper

classes and followed their lead in
fashions. Many of their attitudes were
shared by the British royal family, for
Queen Victoria and her husband,
Prince Albert, were also conservative
and serious-minded people who
believed in the value of hard work
and who distrusted flashy dressers. One reason for this was that the best
men’s tailors were said to be
The British taste in simple, dark Englishmen, who had a long tradition
clothing for men was imitated across of making well-cut clothes from
Europe and in the United States. woolen cloth.
11
 Hairstyles
The saved hair was used to decorate
lockets given to loved ones, and was
even made into jewelry such as
earrings, bracelets, and watch chains.

As women grew older, they usually

kept the hairstyles of their youth.
So in the 1860s, when young
women were wearing elaborate
hairstyles with artificial curls, the
older ladies still had straight hair
with center parts.

Men’s Hair
This 1844 portrait of a
Victorian men generally wore their
German princess shows the hair short, with side or center parts.
flat hairstyle of the period. From the 1840s onward, they began
As a child, her daughter
wears her hair in a looser to slick their hair down with
style. perfumed Macassar oil, named after a
region on the island of Celebes,
Women’s Hair where it was produced from seeds of
Nineteenth-century women grew tropical plants. Macassar oil was
their hair long, only cutting it in supposed to promote hair growth.To
times of serious illness, when short protect chairs from the greasy stains
hair was supposed to aid recovery. As from hair oil, their tops were draped
adults they never wore their hair with cloth covers called antimacassars.
down in public, but always pinned it In American speech this was
up behind their heads. Until the eventually corrupted to “Auntie
1860s, it was fashionable for women McCastor’s.”
to have a center part, with their hair
combed flat and drawn into a neat In the early 1800s, all men shaved
knot or bun behind. At first the knot their chins. Beards had not been
was worn high at the back of the worn since the seventeenth century,
head, but in time it moved lower and fashionable men wanted to look
until, by the 1850s, it reached the as youthful as possible. Only side
neck. In the 1840s, there were whiskers and small moustaches,
fashions for long side ringlets and popular with army officers, were
smooth loops worn over the ears. acceptable as facial hair. In the 1820s,
the side whiskers grew longer until
Every evening, women let down they met under the chin, forming a
their hair and combed it in front of a frame for the face.The first
A chair covered with an
“antimacassar,” to protect mirror, often saving the strands that fashionable beard was a tiny tuft of
it from men’s oily hair. fell out in a jar called a hair receiver. hair under the chin, called a favorite.
12
 Early Victorian Fashions

Three examples of the wide variety of facial hairstyles worn by Victorian men.

Joseph Palmer (see panel), who

Joseph Palmer shocked America in the early 1830s
In the United States in 1830, a man called Joseph with his beard, was ahead of his time.
Palmer shocked the town of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, By the 1850s, many men were
by growing a full beard. He was deeply religious, and wearing full beards. In 1854 the
grew his beard because they were worn in Biblical Westminster Review described the
times. His appearance was regarded as so shocking beard as “identified with sternness,
that children threw stones at him in the street, and he dignity, and strength ... the only
was denounced in church by the local preacher. When a becoming complement of true
group of four men tried to shave him by force, Palmer manliness.” Even so, full beards were
defended himself with a knife, only to be arrested and never popular with young men, who
charged with “an unprovoked assault.” Palmer refused wanted to keep up with the latest
to pay the fine and was sent to Worcester prison for a fashions. Refusing to shave was a
year. He became famous across the nation as “the way of showing that a man had
Bearded Prisoner of Worcester.” more important things to think
about than fashion.
13
 Bloomers and Crinolines
In the early 1850s, skirts grew wider Bloomers
with every year.The effect was In 1851, Mrs. Amelia Jenks Bloomer,
achieved by wearing up to twelve editor of a New York ladies’ paper,
layers of petticoats, including ones The Lily, promoted a new costume
stiffened and padded with horsehair. for ladies combining a jacket and a
Such clothes, both heavy and hot, light, knee-length skirt over baggy
were the most uncomfortable worn trousers, which were tight at the
The “Bloomer” costume, by women throughout the ankles.When she traveled to England
promoted by Mrs. Amelia
Bloomer in the early nineteenth century. People began to to spread her ideas, Mrs. Bloomer
1850s. look for alternatives. was met with hostility and mockery.
Women in “bloomers” were accused
of “wearing the trousers,” or trying to
control their husbands. Only a few
ladies attempted to wear bloomers,
but soon gave them up.Writing in
1893, the early American feminist
Lucy Stone recalled, “The bloomer
costume was excellent....When we
undressed we felt no great sense of
relief....We could go upstairs without
stepping on ourselves.... But useful as
the bloomer was, the ridicule of the
world killed it.”

Crinoline
1856 saw the invention of a set of
light steel hoops worn under the
dress.This was called an artificial
crinoline, originally the name of the
stiffened petticoat, from crin
(horsehair).The lightness of the
garment was welcomed by women,
and all classes quickly took to
wearing crinolines.The earlier
stiffened petticoats were forgotten,
and the name crinoline now applied
only to hoops. Even Mrs. Bloomer
gave up her bloomers and dressed
in crinolines.

By 1862 crinoline hoops accounted

for a seventh of the weekly output of
metal from Sheffield, center of the
14
 Early Victorian Fashions

British steel industry. In 1865 the

journalist Henry Mayhew wrote, Ankle Boots
“Every woman now from the The crinoline, which
Empress on her Imperial throne exposed the feet
down to the slavey in the scullery, and ankles,
wears crinoline, the very three year resulted in a new
olds wear them.... At this moment ... fashion for heeled
men and boys are toiling in the ankle boots, laced
bowels of the earth to obtain the ore halfway up the calf,
of iron which fire and furnace and replacing the
steam will ... convert into steel for earlier flat slippers.
petticoats.” A shorter crinoline,
the crinolinette,
Bigger Dresses followed, to display
The effect on fashion of crinolines the boots properly.
was to make dresses continue to
increase in size, until they were six
feet (1.8 m) wide. It became plenty of fun.” She wrote, “No one
impossible for two women to go can say of the modern English girl
As this 1864
through a door at the same time. that she is tender, loving, retiring or advertisement shows,
Men complained that they could no domestic.... All we can do is wait there were many kinds of
longer offer ladies their arm when patiently until the national madness crinoline, including some
whose steel bands were
walking with them.Women had to has passed and our women have covered with horsehair-
be careful in windy weather, when come back to the old English ideal.” stuffed padding.
their dresses might be blown into the
air.There were also women who
accidentally set fire to themselves
when they walked too near a
fireplace.The Irish writer Oscar
Wilde had two half sisters who burnt
to death at a party in this way, the
one trying to save the other who had
caught on fire.

Crinolines, which also allowed

shorter corsets to be worn, gave
women a new sense of freedom.
Many rebelled against the early
Victorian idea that women should be
modest, serious, and quiet. In an 1866
essay in The Saturday Review, Eliza
Lynn Linton complained of modern
women whose “sole idea of life is
15
 Chapter 2: The Clothing Industry
y the middle of the nineteenth century, people
B around the world were wearing fabrics produced in
British factories. Different areas specialized in different
textiles.Woolen cloth was
manufactured in West
Yorkshire, while Cheshire
produced silk.The biggest
industry of all was cotton
manufacture, based in
Lancashire, where it was
said that “cotton was
king.” Lancashire cotton
masters boasted that they
supplied the home market
before breakfast and the
rest of the world afterward.
A West Indian cotton
plantation of the 1820s,
where black slaves pick
and process cotton, under
Cotton: From Plant to Shirt
the eye of a white
overseer.
Cotton plants need a hot, dry climate machine called a gin, which separated
to thrive. Five-sixths of the cotton the cotton from the seeds. It was then
manufactured in Britain came from packed into bales to be shipped to the
the southern states of the United mills of Lancashire. Five million bales
States, with the remainder coming of cotton a year were shipped abroad
mostly from India and Egypt, both from the United States.
part of the British Empire.
In 1865, the American slaves were
Plantations freed, but their working lives did not
Until the 1860s,American cotton change greatly.The landowners
plants were tended by black slaves invented a new system, called share
working on large plantations.They cropping. Freed slaves continued to
planted the cotton in the spring and work in the fields in return for a
weeded the fields through the share of the crop they produced.The
summer. In August the pods burst planters still owned the land and the
open, revealing seeds enclosed in white shops where the workers had to
fluffy balls.These were picked by hand spend their earnings. At the end of a
and then passed through a toothed year, it was common for a
16
 The Clothing Industry

sharecropper to be in debt to the

landowner.

Factories
In the Lancashire factories the cotton
went through several processes. It was
passed through a carding machine
whose teeth straightened the tiny
fibers.The fibers were then drawn
out, twisted, spun into thread, and
woven into cloth on a loom. Cotton
mills were hot and stuffy places to
work, for the process required warm,
still air. In the 1830s, the working day
lasted from twelve to sixteen hours.

Child Labor
Factory work required little physical strength, and so
children and teenagers, who could be paid less than
adults, supplied a large part of the labor force. In 1844
William Cooke Taylor, author of Factories and the Factory
System, wrote, “We would rather see boys and girls
earning the means of support in the mill than starving
by the road-side.” Yet there was a longstanding
campaign against the use of child labor, which was
gradually limited by the British government. Between
1833 and 1891, the minimum age for factory workers
was raised from nine to eleven years of age.

was so low that workers, often

women, had to work long hours to
make enough money to survive. In
Seamstresses sewing dresses in a French
workshop of the 1890s, under an electric 1849 the journalist Henry Mayhew
lamp, a late Victorian invention. interviewed a woman who made
shirts for a living. She said, “The
Sweated Labor collars, wristbands, and shoulder-
Making clothes such as cotton shirts straps are all stitched, and there are
was usually a “sweated” trade, seven buttonholes in each shirt. It
meaning that the employer paid takes full five hours to do one.... I
workers for the number of pieces, or often work in the summer time from
shirts, they completed rather than the four in the morning to nine or ten at
hours they worked.The piece rate night—as long as I can see.”
17
 Beavers and Whales
Hatters using steam,
shown rising in the
background, to shape felt
into top hats.

Two wild animals played a major role industry, beavers had disappeared
in the Victorian clothing industry. from western Europe by the
These were the North American sixteenth century. In the seventeenth
beaver, whose dense fur was used to century, a rich new source of beavers
make hats, and the baleen whale, was found in North America. Much
whose bony mouth plates were used of the exploration of the continent
to line corsets and make umbrella was carried out by beaver-fur trading
ribs. As a result of the Victorian companies, such as the Hudson’s Bay
demand for these products, both of Company. By the 1830s, beavers
these animals were driven to the edge could only be found in the far north
of extinction. and west.

Beavers Hat City

Since the Middle Ages, Europeans One of the biggest centers of hat
had made hats from beaver fur, production was the city of Danbury,
scraping away the long outer hairs to Connecticut, known as the Hat City.
reveal the thick wool underneath. The number of hats produced each
Using steam and irons, this was year in Danbury rose from one and a
shaped by hatters to make hard- half million, in 1860, to five million
wearing waterproof felt hats, with a in 1890. Although the industry has
silky sheen. As a result of the hat now disappeared, large amounts of
18
 The Clothing Industry

mercury, used in hat production, still

pollute the soil where the hatmakers’
factories once stood. Mad Hatters
As beavers became scarcer, hatmakers were forced to
Baleen use cheaper materials, particularly rabbit furs. In order
Baleen whales are animals with long to turn this into felt, it had to be coated with a solution
plates of horny material, called of mercury, which roughened the fibers, helping them
baleen, which hang down from their mat together. To shape the felt, it was boiled, dried, and
upper jaws.These resemble giant, then steamed. This led to hatters breathing in mercury
hairy combs which the animals use fumes, which are highly poisonous. Many hatters ended
like a net, to trap food from the sea. up suffering from mercury poisoning, the symptoms of
Springy and tough, baleen was the which included muscle twitching, a lurching walk, mental
perfect material to line corsets.The confusion, and slurred speech. This is the origin of the
American whaling harbors of Victorian expression, “as mad as a hatter.”
Bridgeport and New Haven, in
Connecticut, were also centers of
corset manufacture, where the
garments were made by hand in
factories and workshops.

By the 1860s, the slower types of

baleen whale—bowheads and right
whales—had been almost wiped out
by hunters, who chased them in
rowing boats with handheld
harpoons.The whalers now turned
their attention to other species of
baleen whales, called rorquals, which
swam too quickly to be caught by
rowing boats. In the 1860s, whalers
began to use fast, steam-powered
“catcher boats,” from which they
fired harpoons with exploding shells.

Between 1870 and 1901, the value of

baleen increased sixfold. Other whale
products were no longer needed, for
whale oil—previously used for
lamps—had been replaced by
kerosene, a product of petroleum.
Whalers were now ripping out the
Lewis Carroll’s 1865 children’s book, Alice in Wonderland, includes a
baleen and throwing the rest of the “Mad Hatter.” He wears one of the top hats from his own shop, its
animal back into the sea. price tag left in place.

19
 The Sewing Machine
In the first half of the nineteenth sewing machine that used thread from
century, dozens of inventors in the two different sources. A curved needle
United States and Europe were with an eye at its point passed one
trying to invent a sewing machine. thread through a piece of cloth,
There were many problems with making a loop on the other side.Then
early machines, in which thread a shuttle passed a second thread
usually broke after a short time.The through the loop, making a
first effective machine was the work “lockstitch.” Hunt lost interest in his
of three American inventors:Walter invention, and did not bother to apply
Hunt, Elias Howe, and Isaac Merrit for a patent (an official document
Singer. granting an inventor the sole right to
make and sell his invention, for a
Rival Inventors limited period).
Walter Hunt was a brilliant inventor,
whose most famous invention was the In 1846 Elias Howe patented a
safety pin. In the 1830s, Hunt built a machine which operated in the same

Elias Howe claimed that

the idea for his sewing
machine came to him in
a dream.

Singer’s first sewing

machine was powered by a
handcrank, labelled “D” in
this drawing. He went on to
replace this with a foot
treadle, leaving both hands
free to move the cloth.

20
 The Clothing Industry

way as Hunt’s, though he invented it

independently.The machine was Clothes Factory
improved in 1851 by a third inventor, Although the sewing machine speeded up one part of
Isaac Merrit Singer, whose machine clothes production, cloth still had to be cut by hand.
used a straight needle which moved Then, in 1860, John Barron, an English tailor, turned
up and down rather than from side to the woodworking band saw into a band knife, which
side, and which was powered by a could cut through several layers of cloth at one time.
foot crank rather than a handle. Barron’s factory in Leeds, which used Singer sewing
Unlike Howe’s machine, which could machines, was the first to mass produce ready-made
only sew straight seams, a few inches clothes, including uniforms for railroad workers, the
at a time, Singer’s could sew any type police force, and the British Army.
of seam continuously.

Singer’s machines went into mass trimming now prevalent to the

production in 1851.A better facilities offered by the sewing
businessman than Hunt or Howe, machines, which have become valued
Singer sold his machines, which were friends in many a household.”
as expensive as cars are today, on
installment credit plans. Housewives
were able to pay for the machine in
installments over a long period of time.

Howe accused Singer of stealing his

ideas and sued him. Singer fought
back, arguing that the lock-stitch had
first been invented by Hunt, and he
even paid Hunt to build a replica of
his 1830s machine. Despite this,
Howe won the case because Hunt
had never applied for a patent. Singer
was forced to pay Howe a share of
his profits and, as a result, both Singer
and Howe became millionaires.

Effects on Fashion
The sewing machine allowed clothes
to be mass produced cheaply in
factories. It also changed fashion, for
it made it much easier to add
decorative trimmings to dresses. In
the 1870s, “Sylvia,” the author of
With its ornamental base, this 1899 sewing machine is a much more
How to Dress Well on a Shilling a Day decorative object than the early Singer example on the opposite page.
wrote, “We owe much of the over- It is powered by a foot treadle.

21
 New Colors
Until 1856, all clothes were colored William Perkin
with dyes made from natural In 1856 an eighteen-year-old English
products such as plants, minerals, chemistry student named William
insects, and shellfish. Purple, for Perkin was attempting to make
example, was made from the murex artificial quinine, a drug to treat
shellfish, while red came from malaria. He was using aniline, a
cochineal beetles. It required 17,000 substance derived from coal tar.The
beetles to make just one ounce (28 experiment failed, leaving a dark, oily
grams) of red dye, so natural dyes sludge. Perkin was about to throw it
were often expensive to produce. away when he decided to make a
Perkin’s new color, Over time, the colors of naturally solution of it, and found that he had
mauveine, is displayed in
the dazzling stripes on the dyed clothes also faded, as a result of a bright purple liquid. On applying it
dress on the right. sunlight and washing. to a piece of silk, he discovered that
it worked as a dye.

Perkin had invented the first artificial

dye, a bright purple, which he called
mauveine. Unlike cloth dyed
naturally, cloth colored with
mauveine did not fade over time.
Mauveine was also cheap to produce,
for coal tar was an abundant waste
product of gas manufacturing.

In 1857 Perkin opened a dyeworks

on the Grand Union Canal in west
London, and began to produce
mauveine.The color first became
fashionable in France, thanks to
Empress Eugénie, who discovered
that it matched her eyes. In 1858,
after Queen Victoria wore a mauve
dress to her daughter’s wedding, there
was an outbreak in England of what
Punch magazine called “mauve
measles.”The novelist Charles
Dickens wrote, “Oh, Mr. Perkin,
thanks to thee for fishing out of the
coal hole those precious stripes and
bands of purple on summer gowns.”

Meanwhile, Perkin was developing

other artificial dyes, including
22
 The Clothing Industry

Synthetic Perfume
While experimenting with coal tar, Perkin made another accidental
discovery: a substance which smelled like new-mown hay, which he
sold as a perfume. Chemists proceeded to use coal tar to make more
artificial scents, including musk, violet, jasmine, and rose. Previously,
the only way to make a perfume which smelled of roses was to use
real rose petals. Perkin had invented the synthetic perfume industry.

A day dress of the 1850s.

Britannia Violet and Perkin’s Green. diversity of novel colors, allowed on

The color of the canal water by his all hands to be the most superb and
dyeworks was said to change from brilliant that have ever delighted
week to week, depending on which the human eye.”
dye the company was producing. He
now had competitors—French and Until the 1860s, women
German chemists who used anilene dressed in a limited range of
to produce Verguin’s fuchsine colors, chosen to go with
(magenta), Martius yellow, bleu de each other in a pleasing way.
Lyon, and aldehyde green. A race was The new aniline dyes led to
on to make the brightest colors from women wearing outfits
coal tar. which combined several
bright, contrasting
The range of new colors was colors. In 1872 a
displayed at the London International French visitor to
Exhibition of 1862.The report by London, Hippolyte
the exhibition judges described “a Taine, complained,
series of silks, cashmeres, ostrich “the glare is
plumes, and the like, dyed in a terrible.”
23
 Paris Fashion
Early Victorian dressmakers were chose the fabrics and the dress styles,
mostly women, who visited rich from magazine illustrations.The
ladies at home to measure them and dressmakers’ work was seen as a craft
take orders for clothes. It was the rather than an art, and few of their
customer, not the dressmaker, who names are remembered.The first
famous dressmaker was an
Englishman, Charles Frederick Worth
(1825–95), who is called the father of
“haute couture,” or exclusive high
fashion.

House of Worth
As a thirteen-year-old boy,
Worth worked in a linen
drapers, where he learned
about fabric and trimmings.
Fascinated by the history of
fashion, he spent his spare
time visiting art galleries to
study dresses in old
paintings. In 1846 he
moved to Paris, where he
began to work as a designer.
In 1857 he opened his own
business, Maison Worth (House
of Worth), at 7 Rue de la Paix,
Paris.

Worth was an expert designer, who

saw himself as an artist, not a
craftsman, and behaved as if he were
Empress Eugénie doing women a favor by making
The one client whom Worth clothes for them. Instead of visiting
would serve in her home was customers in their homes, they were
Empress Eugénie (1826–1920), expected to come to him. In order to
the beautiful Spanish wife of the make his business appear as exclusive
French emperor Napoleon III. as possible,Worth refused to serve
Eugénie spent vast sums on ladies unless they had a letter of
dresses and led rich women’s introduction from a previous
fashions by her example, not just customer.
in France, but across the
Western world. It was an advantage to Worth that he
was an Englishman in Paris. As a
24
 The Clothing Industry

Magazine illustrations,
such as this 1880
example from The Queen,
displayed the latest
fashions from Maison
Worth.

foreigner he stood outside the the daylight, was lit by gas, so that a
French class system and could client could see how a dress might
behave in ways which would have appear on her at a ball.
seemed offensive coming from a
Frenchman.The French writer Worth pioneered methods used by
Hippolyte Taine described what couturiers today. He made his
happened when a lady who had not designs using patterns of linen or
been properly introduced tried to muslin, known as toile, which he
order a dress from Worth: draped over his client’s body,
“‘Madame,’ he said, ‘By whom are adjusting them to make sure of a
you presented?’ ‘I don’t understand.’ perfect fit. The toile patterns were
‘I’m afraid you must be presented then used to make the dress.Worth
in order to be dressed by me.’ She was also the first designer to make a
went away, suffocated with rage. seasonal collection of clothing rather
But others stayed, saying, ‘I don’t than one-off garments.
care how rude he is so long as he
dresses me.’” Worth dressed the royal courts of
Europe and attracted rich customers
The showrooms at Maison Worth from as far away as Russia and the
included wooden mannequins United States. In the capital cities
modeling dresses, with mirrors of the United States and western
carefully placed so that a customer Europe, other couturiers went into
would contrast her own inferior business. All of them followed
clothes with those on display. One the Paris fashions invented by
room, thickly curtained to keep out Worth.
25
 New Ways of Selling
The mass production of clothing Department Stores
required new ways of selling goods. The first department stores to open,
The Victorian period saw the first in the late 1840s and early 1850s,
shops offering ready-made clothes as were A.T. Stewart’s in New York,
well as the first department stores. Bainbridges in Newcastle, and Bon
People living far away from cities, in Marché in Paris. For the first time, a
the American West, could now order customer could buy a complete
their clothes from mail-order outfit, including accessories, in a
catalogs.The result was the birth of single store. Unlike earlier clothes
Every American farming what is now called consumer culture. stores, which usually kept goods
family was said to own two For the first time, shopping was seen locked away in glass cases,
books, the Bible and the
Sears Roebuck mail-order
as a leisure activity rather than a department stores displayed ready-
catalog. chore. made clothes in the open,
encouraging browsers. Because
department stores bought their goods
in bulk, they could get better deals
from their suppliers and charge
cheaper prices. Customers also had
the right to return goods and get a
refund.

Window Shopping
The invention of a glass-pressing
machine, in Boston in 1827, meant
that large sheets of “plate glass” could
be made. As a result, between 1830
and 1860, the size of the largest store
window panes increased from seven
by three feet (2 m by 1 m) to
fourteen by eight feet (4 m by 2.4
m).These bigger windows allowed
stores to display goods in new ways,
to tempt passersby. In 1857 the
English journalist George Augustus
Sala described the windows of
fashionable London stores as
“museums of fashion in plate-glass
cases.” Describing the window
dressers, he wrote, “By their nimble
and practised hands the rich piled
velvet mantles are displayed, the
moire and glacé silks arranged in
artful folds, the laces and gauzes, the
26
 The Clothing Industry

innumerable whim-whams and largest number went to the French, This engraving shows the
fribble-frabble of fashion, elaborately who were world leaders in fashion vast size of the Crystal
Palace, which included
shown, and to their best advantage.” and design.This was just one of many 293,655 panes of glass in
Victorian exhibitions, which showed its construction.
The Great Exhibition the public new fashions, and
In 1851, Britain held the “Great encouraged manufacturers to improve
Exhibition of the Works of Industry their products.
of All Nations” in London, inviting
manufacturers from around the world The novelist Charlotte Bronte, who
to display their finest goods. visited the exhibition in June, wrote,
Between May and October, six “Whatever human industry has
million people visited the Great created you find there, from the great
Exhibition, in the specially built compartments filled with railroad
Crystal Palace, which resembled a engines and boilers ... to the glass
vast greenhouse of glass and iron. covered and velvet spread stands
More than thirteen thousand loaded with the most gorgeous work
exhibitors competed for prizes.The of the goldsmith and silversmith.”
27
 Secondhand Clothes
The rich were always getting rid of clothes dealers, often Jewish
unwanted clothes.When a jacket immigrants from eastern Europe.
showed the slightest sign of wear, a
gentleman would give it to his A Shop in St. Giles
servants to dispose of. Ladies gave In 1877 the photographer John
dresses that were no longer Thomson and the journalist
fashionable to their maids.The maids Adolphe Smith published Street
would have no opportunity to wear Life in London, the earliest
such clothes themselves, so they sold collection of social documentary
them to secondhand clothes dealers. photographs. Thomson took a
All of the big cities of Europe and photograph of a secondhand clothes
the United States had secondhand store in St. Giles, London.
Describing the picture, Smith
wrote, “The dealer whose portrait is
before the reader cannot boast of a
large business. She had been
unfortunate in previous
speculations, and illness had also
crippled her resources, so that her
stock is limited, and her purchasing
power still more restricted.”

Recycling
Old clothes were recycled by the
dealers. If they could be cleaned and
repaired, they went to a man called a
clobberer. Adolphe Smith wrote that
the clobberer “has cunning admixtures
of ammonia and other chemicals,
which remove the grease stains, he can
sew with such skill that the rents and
tears are concealed with remarkable
success, and thus old garments are
made to look quite new.”

Upper-class fashions, such as dress

coats, would not be worn by the
poor. So they were cut up and made
A secondhand clothes
into new items of clothing by a man
store in London. called a translator. He used the skirts
Photography, a nineteenth of coats to make waistcoats or jackets
century invention, provides
a rich source of evidence for children.The rest of the cloth was
for Victorian dress. often used to make caps.
28
 The Clothing Industry

Stealing
The most common Victorian crime was stealing clothes, to be sold to the
secondhand dealers. The London Victorian clothes dealers had a
reputation as “fences,” or receivers of stolen goods. In his novel Oliver
Twist, Charles Dickens depicts a Victorian fence, Fagin, who trains a gang
of child pickpockets to lift handkerchiefs from gentlemen’s pockets.

The easiest way to steal clothes was to take items left to dry on the
washing lines of laundries. Many of these operated in the outer
suburbs of Victorian cities, away from the smoke of the center, where
they cleaned the white shirts and petticoats of the middle and upper
classes. Stealing clothes from washing lines was called “snowing.”
Thieves always found a ready market for good-quality linen and cotton
among secondhand clothes dealers.

Many of these re-modeled garments

were taken for sale to London’s
famous Petticoat Lane street market,
which became a great clothing
exchange. Here, a poor man could
buy a cabinet minister’s heavy
overcoat; a poor bride a fine gown
for her wedding.

When clothes were too worn out

for the translator or clobberer, they
were sold to wool manufacturers to
be turned into new cloth. Old
clothes from all over Europe ended
up in the mills of Yorkshire where,
according to Adolphe Smith, “They
are torn into shreds by toothed
wheels ... till they are reduced to the
condition of wool. They may then
be mixed with a certain amount of
new wool, and finally reappear as
new cloth, woven according to the
latest pattern....Thus the cloth of
our newest coat is, after all, probably
A young pickpocket runs
made from the cast-off garment of off with a gentleman’s
some street beggar!” pocket watch.

29
 Chapter 3: The Stages of Life
ike people throughout history, the Victorians used
L clothes to mark the different stages of life, from a
child’s white christening robe to a bride’s white dress
and a widow’s black veil. Growing up was marked by
boys putting on long trousers, and girls wearing longer
dresses and pinning their hair up.
Babies
Babies wore diapers of folded linen or ornamental row of buttons over each
cotton, which might be knotted or shoulder and then buttoning his
fastened with a safety pin, after this trousers over it so as to give his legs
was invented in 1849. Infants of both the appearance of being hooked on
sexes wore long, white dresses, often just under his arm pits.”
trimmed with lace. Once a baby was
old enough to crawl, the dress was The most popular boy’s outfit, worn
shortened to ankle length.When they from the 1840s until the early 1900s,
were taken out for a walk in a
“perambulator” (baby carriage), babies
wore elaborate bonnets.

A baby’s christening robe, Boys

made of shiny satin.
Boys continued to wear dresses, and
have their hair long, after they learned
to walk. Between the ages of three
and seven, depending on their
mother’s wishes, they would have
their hair cut short and be
“breeched,” or put into trousers.

The skeleton suit, worn from the

1790s until the 1830s, was the first
outfit specifically designed for
children to wear. Previously, children
had worn scaled-down versions of
adult clothes. Its name came from its
close-fitting style, said to make boys
look as thin as skeletons.The outfit
was described by Charles Dickens in The “Little Lord
1839 as “a contrivance for displaying Fauntleroy” suit,
... a boy’s figure by fastening him into fashionable
in the 1880s.
a very tight jacket, with an
30
 The Stages of Life

was the sailor suit. This originated in

Britain, but then spread to the rest
of Europe and the United States. It
was originally worn for patriotic
reasons.The British had the most
powerful navy in the world, and
boys loved to read about great naval
heroes and battles.

In 1885 the American novelist Francis

Hodgson Burnett published Little
Lord Fauntleroy, whose boy hero is
described as “a graceful, childish
figure in a black velvet suit, with a
lace collar, and with love locks waving
about the handsome, manly little
face.” From the 1880s until around
1910, there was a craze for the “Little
Lord Fauntleroy” costume, which was
based on clothes worn in the
seventeenth century. It was loved by
mothers but detested by little boys.

Girls
The standard dress for a girl was a
short skirt, with a blouse, jacket, and
hat. Between the ages of four and
sixteen, the hemline of a girl’s skirt
gradually lowered, until it reached the
ankles. A sixteen-year-old girl was
considered to be a young woman and
showed her new status by pinning her
hair up.

In 1935 the writer Eleanor Acland Wedding Dresses

recalled that, as a girl in the 1880s, she In the early nineteenth century, wedding dresses could
had to wear six items of underwear: a be any color. For her wedding in 1840, Queen Victoria
woolen vest, drawers, a calico chose to wear a satin dress that was white, a color
chemise, stockings, stays, and a linked with purity, and set a fashion for all future brides.
petticoat. She wrote,“What I ... She also wore a veil with orange blossoms, which would
most envy the little girls of today become the favorite flower worn by Victorian brides,
is the fewness and simplicity of usually on their dresses.
their garments.”
31
 In Mourning
On December 14, 1861, Prince years, yet she would never again wear
Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, any color except black, white, or
died of typhoid, leaving a forty-two- deep violet.
year-old widow and nine children.
The royal family immediately dressed High Mortality
in black, the color of mourning. For The Victorian period was a time of
the next eight years, the royal servants high mortality, even among the upper
all wore black armbands.The queen classes.The death of children, in
would live on for another thirty-nine particular, was a common event,
caused by diseases such as cholera,
typhoid, diphtheria, influenza,
measles, and chicken pox. In 1899, in
the wealthiest part of Liverpool, 136
babies in every thousand died before
they reached the age of one. So most
families had to wear mourning
clothes at some time or another.

Rules for Mourning

Upper- and middle-class Victorians
followed strict rules about the clothes
they wore following a death in the
family.The period of mourning
depended on the family relationship.
It ranged from two and a half years,
for a widow grieving for a husband,
to six weeks—the time mothers
mourned the parents-in-law of their
married children.

The rules were simple for men, who

wore a black armband over an
ordinary black suit. It was more
complicated for women, who had to
Jet Jewelry wear different clothes at four
Jet is a black stone made from fossilized monkey puzzle different stages of mourning. During
trees. With its soft texture and high polish, it was the “first,” or “deep,” mourning, widows
ideal material for mourning jewelry. The best jet was wore a plain black dress covered with
found in Whitby in Yorkshire, where it was mined from crepe, a dull, crinkled black silk.
cliffs or collected from beaches. In 1873 two hundred When they went out, they hid their
Whitby men worked as jet miners, while a further 1,500 faces beneath a black veil. After a year
men and boys were employed in making mourning jewelry. and a day, widows moved on to
“second mourning,” when the crepe
32
 The Stages of Life

on their dresses was limited to

decorative trimmings and they could
now wear the veil back, revealing
their faces. After a further nine
months, they reached the third stage,
“ordinary mourning,” when they
stopped wearing crepe, replacing it
with shiny black silk, trimmed with
ribbons and jet.The last stage, “half
mourning,” lasted for six months or
more, when they could wear soft
colors such as lilac and gray.

By wearing mourning for thirty-nine

years, Queen Victoria was acting in
an unconventional way. In 1862 she
even wore black to her second
daughter’s wedding, although widows
were expected to wear half-
mourning colors at weddings so that
they would not spread gloom. As the
queen, she could exhibit behavior
which would have been criticized in
commoners.

Observing the rules correctly was

extremely expensive. Fashions in
mourning dresses changed just as
quickly as those in everyday clothes,
and so women could not save their
mourning dresses for the next death
in the family. It was said to be
unlucky to keep crepe in the house
after the mourning period ended. So
the dresses were always sold to
secondhand clothes dealers.

This portrait shows Queen Victoria in 1887,

still dressed in half mourning for her
husband Albert, who had died twenty-six
years earlier. The blue sash is the emblem of
the Order of the Garter.

33
 Chapter 4: Occasional Clothes
striking feature of the Victorian period was the
A number of times each day that upper- and middle-
class people changed their clothes. Different dresses and
coats were worn in the daytime and in the evening, and
there were also particular outfits for different activities,
such as horse riding or playing tennis.
Dishabille According to The Habits of Good
Unlike women, who dressed formally Society (1855), “There are four kinds
throughout the day, men could wear of coat which a well dressed man
comfortable clothes, called dishabille must have; a morning coat, a frock-
(undress) at breakfast or when coat, a dress-coat, and an overcoat.”
relaxing in the evening. Over trousers The frock coat was a jacket with a
and a shirt, they would wear a richly long, square front, while the morning
colored dressing gown and a round coat had swallowtails. Both came in a
embroidered cap, often with a tassel. variety of colors and were worn
In the 1870s, there was a fashion for during the daytime. In the evening,
breakfast jackets, which were blue or men dressed for dinner, switching to
maroon velvet with quilted satin formal evening dress, consisting of
lapels.The next decade saw the black trousers and a tailcoat, a low
coming of smoking jackets, which black or white waistcoat, a starched
were velvet with cord edging. white shirtfront, and a white bow tie.

Morning and Evening Hats

Dresses Everybody wore hats outdoors, and
Women wore a morning dress in the formal male dress required a black,
daytime, changing into an evening dress silk top hat.This was raised, on
for dinner.There was a wide variety of greeting a lady, or simply touched
styles for both types of clothes.The when meeting another gentleman.
main difference was that morning Failure to greet someone, called
A gentleman in a dresses were less richly decorated, and “cutting” them, was a terrible insult.
dressing gown. covered a woman’s shoulders. There were books of etiquette

Bedtime
Women wore a long nightgown in bed, and both men and women often wore white nightcaps
to sleep in. Men slept in long nightshirts until the 1880s, when they started to wear
pajamas, a fashion brought over from India by returning British soldiers and civil servants.
The Hindi word pajama means “leg clothing,” referring to the light trousers worn by both
Indian men and women as day wear. Pajamas came in various colors and were often striped.

34
 Occasional Clothes

explaining the right time to take a “Formerly no man in full rig [formal
hat off when visiting someone. dress] would have walked down
Gentlemen did not leave their hats in Piccadilly with a man in a round hat This pink satin evening
the hall, but carried them into the and short coat; and a lady on meeting dress was designed by
Charles Frederick Worth.
drawing room to greet the hostess, the latter would have pretended she It is richly decorated with
where they left them on a table or a did not recognize him.” bead embroidery.
chair. According to an American
book, Martine’s Handbook (1866), “a
gentleman never sits in the house
with his hat on in the presence of
ladies for a single moment. Indeed, so
strong is the force of habit that a
gentleman will quite unconsciously
remove his hat on entering a parlor,
or drawing room, even if there is no
one present but himself.”

Wearing the wrong clothes for the

wrong occasions was almost as
shocking as wearing no clothes at all.
In 1899, The Tailoring World declared,

A lightweight overcoat, or top coat, worn by

gentlemen during the daytime.

35
 Leisure Wear

A game of mixed doubles.

Victorian women wore long
dresses to play tennis.

Upper- and middle-class Victorians colors, so that the hunter would

enjoyed many different sporting and blend into the surroundings and not
leisure activities, including riding, startle the animals. Men wore thick
hunting, fishing, boating, cricket, golf, woolen socks, brown jackets, and
tennis, croquet, archery, ice-skating, knee-breeches made of tweed, a
and hill walking. Different leisure hard-wearing wool fabric with a
activities demanded different sets of diagonal weave.There was also a
clothing. In 1884 The Gentleman’s tweed “deerstalker” hat, with ear
Fashion Magazine pronounced, “Every protectors, which could be tied up
man with a grain of respectability, on on top.This is the hat associated with
the river puts on white trousers, with the famous Victorian fictional
white flannel shirt, straw hat, striped detective, Sherlock Holmes.
flannel coat.”
Boating
Hunting For cricket and boating, men wore
There were various hunting outfits, white flannel trousers and shirts
depending on the sport. For beneath a bright jacket, often with
foxhunting on horseback, men and colorful stripes, called a blazer.This is
women wore bright scarlet jackets thought to have originated with the
which were called hunting pink.The St. Margaret Boat Club in
name derived from the tailor Thomas Cambridge University, whose
Pink, a popular maker of hunting members wore a red striped jacket
coats in the late eighteenth century. which was said to “blaze” on the
A striped blazer and straw
hat was worn for boating— Stalking and shooting deer in the water. In the late Victorian period,
rowing on a lake or river. Scottish highlands called for subdued the blazer was adopted as school
36
 Occasional Clothes

uniform for boys and girls. A

columnist in The Ladies’World of Bathing Costumes
1887 wrote, “The striped flannel Victorian bathing costumes were made of thick serge and
jackets, under the familiar name covered as much of the body as possible. For women
‘blazer’ brilliant in coloring, created this meant a body stocking beneath a short skirt, often
for the river and the cricket field are striped. It did not matter that such clothes were hard to
worn on nearly all occasions now by swim in, for women usually wore them only for wading.
girls and boys.” Few people learned how to swim properly until the
twentieth century. Wearing a bathing costume was a
Croquet, Archery, and great relief from the usual corset and layers of clothing.
Tennis
The most popular sports for wealthy
women were croquet, tennis, and
archery.Women wore hats, gloves,
and long dresses, which were not
very different from their usual
daywear, and just as impractical. One
reason why croquet was so popular
with women was that it required
little physical effort, and could be
played while wearing a tight corset.

Mountaineering
In the 1850s, adventurous Englishmen
took to mountaineering as a sport,
forming climbing clubs, and scaling
peaks in Wales and the Swiss Alps.
Mountain climbers wore similar
clothes to those used in deerstalking,
with thick jackets and knee breeches
Women in heavy bathing
made of tweed or whipcord, another costumes, wading up to
tough material.The jackets and their necks in the sea.
trousers were waterproofed by
painting them with a paste made of attractive, and the railroads placed the
soap and boiled linseed oil. Boots coast within reach of everyone. Even
were given hobnail soles, to make the working classes could go to the
them grip the mountainside. sea for day trips from the big factory
towns. Suntans were not fashionable,
Seaside for they were associated with country
Until the nineteenth century, the people, who had to work outdoors.
British seaside was not considered a To protect their white skin, ladies
holiday location. However, smoky carried parasols and wore wide straw
Victorian cities made fresh sea air hats, while men wore straw boaters.
37
 Chapter 5: Working Clothes
he commonest sight in any Victorian town was of
T men in black suits.This was like a uniform, worn
by businessmen, bank managers, store assistants, railroad
station masters, teachers, civil servants, and the many
thousands of office clerks.The black suit was an ideal
garment for wearing every day in a town where the air
was smoky from coal fires. Its color also suggested that
the wearer was serious and trustworthy.The dark suit,
still worn in offices around the world today, is one
legacy of the Victorian era.
Butchers and Fish Such clothes inspired trust in the
At the market: a fishseller
(left) and a baker (right)
Dealers customers, who needed to know that
In certain trades, men wore distinctive the meat and fish they bought was
costumes, which allowed them to be fresh. In 1867 the writer James
recognized, and which were often Greenwood contrasted a butcher
worn with pride. In Britain, the best serving his middle-class readers with
butchers wore blue coats, a custom another in a slum district: “Your
going back to the seventeenth butcher wears a hat, generally a
A Danish newspaper seller, century.They also had aprons with genteel hat, and a blue coat, and a
whose cart is being loaded,
wears a short light jacket horizontal stripes, while fish dealers respectable apron; perhaps, even
and a peaked cap. wore aprons with vertical stripes. snowy sleeves and shiny boots....
Contrasted with him the butcher of
Squalors’ Market ... wears on his head
a cap made of the hairy hide of the
bison or some other savage beast; his
red arms are bare to the elbows, and
he roars continuously.”

Skilled craftsmen, and most

storekeepers, wore white aprons,
which were sent to the laundry to be
cleaned. Like the butcher’s blue coat,
a gleaming white apron was said to
inspire pride in the wearer and
confidence in his customers. People
in less skilled jobs, such as knife
sharpeners and market sellers, wore
cheap aprons made from brown
sacking.
38
 Working Clothes

Practical Clothes Mayhew wrote that you could tell

Some work required clothing dustmen from coalmen at a glance,
designed for practical reasons. for “the latter are invariably black
Market porters, who carried piles of from coal dust, while the dustmen,
boxes and baskets on their heads, on the contrary, are gray with ashes.”
wore hats with large leather pads.
Sewer workers wore long leather The dirtiest workers of all were the
boots that rose above the knees and chimney sweeps, who spent most of
that were covered with grease to their lives coated in soot. Even
protect them from the water. though they wore black suits and
top hats, they were seen as the
In every town there were coal lowest order of workers and were
sellers, who delivered coal to houses, looked down on by almost
and dustmen, who collected the ash everybody else. According to
from fires. Both wore knee-breeches Mayhew, “The peculiar nature of
At the market: a barrow
with short smock frocks, and hats their work giving them not only a woman and a shrimp seller,
with a wide, fan-shaped neck-piece filthy appearance, but an offensive carrying her net.
at the back, like the sou’wester worn smell (forces) them to herd together
by fishermen.The journalist Henry apart from others.”

Men in typical working

clothes buy shellfish from
a market stall.

Paper Hats
Carpenters, stone masons, painters, glassblowers, and plumbers wore box-shaped hats
made from a large square of folded paper. This hat served no practical purpose, but was
worn as a sign that the wearer belonged to a skilled trade. It showed that he knew how to
fold the paper correctly to make one.

39
 Uniforms
The word uniform means “with no Police
variations.” People in uniform are The modern police originated in
those who dress alike, such as Britain in 1829, when Sir Robert
soldiers, policemen, firemen, Peel founded the London
A policeman’s uniform prisoners, and nurses.The Victorian Metropolitan Police Force, the first
included his individual
number; in this case
period saw an increase in the number full-time professional police force in
“345.” This allowed of uniforms, which gave the the world.The “peelers,” as they were
members of the public to Victorians a sense of order in a world known were so effective that other
identify an officer if they
wished to make a which was going through rapid and forces were set up throughout Britain
complaint about him. bewildering changes. and abroad. In 1845 New York
established its own police force
modeled on the British one.

The purpose of a police uniform is

to allow a member of the public to
recognize an officer. Early uniforms
were carefully designed to win public
support for the police. Officers wore
dark blue coats with shiny brass
buttons, like clothes worn by
servants.This was to show that the
policeman was there to serve the
public. Police uniforms were unlike
those worn by soldiers, who were
feared by the public for the violence
with which they broke up riots and
demonstrations.

The first policemen wore top hats.

This was a sign of respectability
which made a policeman stand out in
working-class areas where nobody
else wore them. By making an officer
look taller, the hat was supposed to
give him greater authority.The

Judges and Wigs

British judges wore white horsehair wigs and long red and white gowns, clothing which dates
back to the seventeenth century. The purpose of this deliberately old-fashioned dress was to
make the judge appear as a representative of a long legal tradition. Wigs were thought to
give a judge a dignified and solemn appearance.

40
 Working Clothes

problem with top hats was that they Maybrick spent fifteen years in prison
gave no protection in a fight, and for poisoning her husband, though
were easy to knock off with a stone she claimed she was innocent. She
or a brick. Knocking policemen’s hats described the prison haircut in her
off was a popular sport in some autobiography: “The warder ...
districts. As a result, in 1864, in stepped quickly forward, and with a
Britain the top hat gave way to a tall pair of scissors cut off my hair to the
helmet. nape of my neck.This act seemed,
above all others, to bring me to a
In the United States, the first sense of my degradation [low state],
policemen refused to wear uniforms, my utter helplessness.”
apart from a badge.They did not wish
to look like “liveried lackeys”
(servants), a term they used to
describe British policemen. It was
only in 1853 that the New York city
police adopted a blue frock coat with
brass buttons, and a peaked cap,
replaced by a tall helmet in the 1880s.

Prisoners
When convicted prisoners entered a
Victorian prison, the first thing they
had to do was to surrender their
clothes and put on a prison uniform.
This included a badge with a
number, which would be the
prisoner’s name while serving the
sentence. Like giving up personal
clothes, losing their names meant that
they had lost their individual
identities.This was part of the
punishment. In some prisons,
convicts even had to wear masks
when exercising to prevent them
from getting to know each other.
Other prisoners were thought to be a
bad influence.

After putting on their uniforms,

prisoners had their hair cut short, and
male prisoners had their beards and
moustaches shaved off. Florence Uniforms worn by men and women in the prisons of London in the 1840s.

41
 Military Uniforms
Military uniforms were invented by scarlet coatees (short jackets) and tall
the ancient Romans, whose soldiers bearskin hats, to make themselves
wore identical armor over short red look more imposing.
tunics.This encouraged the men to
think of themselves as members of a Tight Clothes
group rather than as individuals, Waterloo was followed by a long
making them better disciplined, and period of peace in Europe, when
more effective fighters. Uniforms also uniforms became stiffer and tighter.
allowed them to tell a friend from an Such clothes were designed for the
enemy in the heat of a battle. parade ground rather than the
Nineteenth-century uniforms served battlefield.The difficulty of fighting
the same purpose. In the early 1800s, in tight clothes, which restricted
armies still went into battle in bright movement and made it hard to
colors. British soldiers fighting the breathe, was revealed during the
French at Waterloo, in 1815, wore Crimean War of 1854.The British

Uniforms were worn to

display rank, with the most
elaborate dress worn by the
senior officers, as shown in
this illustration of men and
boys in the British Navy.

42
 Working Clothes

army then adopted a loose tunic, this was shown at the first big battle
which covered the hips and offered of the war, at Manassas, in July 1861,
more protection. when the Wisconsin soldiers found
themselves being shot at by both
Blue against Gray sides. After the battle they were
In 1861 a civil war broke out in the reissued with blue uniforms.
United States between the southern
states, or Confederacy, and the Scarlet against
northern states, or the Union. Each Brown
side had to quickly raise armies and The shortcomings of scarlet were
supply uniforms. At first, all sorts of made clear in 1880–1, when Britain
strange uniforms were adopted, fought a war against the Boers,
including Highland kilts and brightly Dutch settlers in South Africa. In
colored baggy trousers. Eventually, the February 1881, at the Battle of
Union clothed its soldiers in blue, Majuba Hill, a force of scarlet-coated
while the Confederacy chose gray. British soldiers was defeated by Boer
marksmen, who found it easy to
Although Wisconsin was part of the shoot at the men in their bright
Union, its soldiers wore gray at the tunics.The Boers wore drab browns,
start of the war.The disadvantage of which helped them to blend in with
the dry African scenery.

Rifles After Majuba Hill, a government

A great change to uniforms was enquiry suggested the adoption of
made necessary in the 1850s, gray for battle dress.The Duke of
with the introduction of mass- Cambridge, army commander-in-
produced muskets which were chief, resisted the change. In 1883 he
rifled. Unlike earlier muskets, said, “I should be sorry to see the day
which had smooth barrels, rifles when the English Army is no longer
had spiral grooves carved inside in red.... I think the soldier had
them, which made a bullet spin better be taught not to hide himself,
as it flew through the air, but to go gallantly to the front ... the
increasing its accuracy. A rifle man who does that has a much better
was deadly at three hundred chance of succeeding than the man
yards (274 m), triple the range of who hides himself.”
a musket. For a marksman armed
with a rifle, a soldier in a scarlet It was not until the late 1890s that
tunic made an excellent target. the British army was given khaki
Soldiers would now have to wear (brown) uniforms for battlefield
uniforms which helped them to service. Khaki, originally adopted
blend in with their surroundings by the British army in India, comes A Confederate (top) and a
Union soldier (bottom)
rather than stand out. from a Hindi word meaning “ during the American Civil
dusty colored.” War.

43
 Servants
Servants formed one of the biggest In a great house the servants were
groups in Victorian society, and more organized in ranks.The most
women worked as servants than in important were the housekeeper and
any other job.The number of the butler.The housekeeper was a
servants employed in a single house middle-aged woman in charge of the
ranged from fifty, in a great country accounts. She paid the bills and hired
house, down to a single “maid-of-all- and fired most of the female servants.
work” in a lower-middle-class home. The butler was the head of the male
staff and had responsibility for the
household silver and the wine
supplies. He wore black evening
dress, similar to a gentleman’s, though
a butler’s attire would usually include
a visual clue, such as a striped
waistcoat, to show guests at dinner
parties that he was not one of them
but a servant.

A footman in livery Footmen

with white-powdered
hair. Footmen were the servants who
answered the front door, delivered
letters, and waited at dinner.Their
role was to display the wealth and
taste of their employers to visitors.
Footmen wore a uniform called
livery, consisting of an eighteenth-
century style coat, knee-breeches, and
white stockings.They often wore
wigs, or powdered their hair. John
James, a footman in the 1890s,
described the unpleasant daily task of
powdering: “After the hair had been
moistened, soap was put on and
rubbed into a stiff lather, and the

Buttoning
During the Victorian period, clothes became standardized, with men’s buttons on the right and
women’s on the left. It is thought that the reason for this was that rich ladies were dressed by
their maids. Most people are right-handed and find it convenient to hold the button with their
right hand. For men, who dressed themselves, the best place to have buttons was on the right
side. This was reversed for ladies’ maids, who faced the clothes they buttoned.

44
 Working Clothes

Lady’s Maid
The lady’s maid was the personal
servant of the mistress of the house,
brushing her hair at night, and
helping her to dress in the morning.
She had to look after her mistress’s
clothes, repairing them with a needle
and thread and ensuring that they
were cleaned and pressed. One
advantage of her job was that she
would usually be given the lady’s
cast-off clothing.

Housemaids
Most of the hard work in a house
was done by housemaids.They made
beds, carried coal, lit fires, cleaned
fireplaces, laid tables, beat rugs, and
scrubbed floors. A housemaid’s
uniform consisted of a dark dress, a Left: This woman is being
tied into her dress by her
white apron, and a tall white cap, “lady’s maid,” her personal
which covered the hair.The state of servant.
the housemaid’s white apron was a
combing was done.... Powder was good guide to how clean she was,
then applied with a puff and the wet and therefore how good she was at
mess allowed to dry on the head her job.
until it became quite firm.”

The taller the footman, the more he

could expect to earn, so you could
judge the wealth of a rich family by
the height of its footmen. A footman
over six foot (1.8 m) tall could
demand twice the salary of one who
was only five feet six (1.7 m).
Hippolyte Taine, a French visitor to
England, was impressed by the size of
the footmen: “They wear white
cravats with large faultless bows,
scarlet or canary-colored
kneebreeches, are magnificent in
A housemaid, dressed in
shape and amplitude [fullness], their apron and white cap, does
calves especially are enormous.” the ironing.

45
 Laborers

Here, German laborers lay The Victorian era was a time of vast were called navigators, shortened to
a telegraph cable in a building programs, as railroads spread navvies, a name originally given to
trench which they have
dug. The man in charge across Britain and factory towns eighteenth-century canal builders. A
can be identified by his grew, doubling in size every ten third of them were Irish, driven by
more expensive bowler hat.
years.This expansion depended poverty and a terrible famine to leave
mainly on unskilled laborers, such as their homeland in search of work.
the “navvies” who tunneled through
hillsides and laid railroad lines, and Navvies wore shirts made of calico, a
the miners who dug the coal out of coarse, light cotton named after
the earth. Such laborers dressed for Calcutta in India, where it was first
practical reasons, in tough fabrics that made.Their jackets were made of a
withstood the wear and tear of their tough material called jean, a mixture
work. of cotton and wool, named after
Genoa in Italy. For trousers the men
Navvies wore knee-breeches made of
In the mid 1840s, 200,000 men were corduroy, a hard-wearing cotton
building railroads in Britain.They fabric with raised ridges.This was
46
 Working Clothes

invented in France in the late

eighteenth century, and was first Jeans
called the king’s cord, perhaps In California in the 1850s, gold prospectors began to wear
because it was worn by royal servants. trousers made of denim, named after Nimes in France. This
There were just two items of was a cotton fabric with a diagonal weave, using threads of
clothing which navvies wore for blue and white. Harder wearing than jean, it eventually
display rather than practical reasons: a replaced it in the United States as the favorite cloth for
patterned waistcoat, which might be hard work, and the trousers made from this material would
red with black spots, and a brightly acquire the name “jeans,” from the earlier material. Like the
colored “neckerchief.” dark suit, denim jeans—now worn by all classes of society
around the world—is another legacy of the Victorian era.
Coal Miners
Life in Victorian times depended on
coal. Coal was the fuel which was am the only girl in the pit; there are
burned in every fireplace and which about twenty boys and fifteen men,
drove the factory machines and train all naked. I would rather work in mill
engines. Coal was also used to make than in coal-pit.” As a result of the
gas for lighting, and at the end of the inquiry, a law was passed preventing
century it was burned in power the employment of women
stations to make electricity. Unlike underground.
other Victorian industries, coal
mining was all done by hand, by men
working deep underground in
narrow tunnels, hacking at the coal
face with picks.The men were often
naked, for it was hot, and few clothes
could stand up to crawling on hands
and knees along a mine shaft, often
through water.Women and children
also worked in the mines, carrying
coal, opening and closing ventilation
doors, and “hurrying,” or pulling and
pushing the wheeled coal carts.

In 1842 the British government

carried out an inquiry into coal
mining that shocked the nation, for it
revealed that women, wearing
trousers, had to work with naked
men. A seventeen-year-old hurrier,
Patience Kershaw, told the enquiry, “I
hurry in the clothes I have now got
on—trousers and a ragged jacket.... I A navvy. A collier.

47
 Country Workers
Workers in the countryside were Smock Frocks
affected little by changing fashions. The main garment worn in Britain
Across western Europe laborers wore by early-Victorian country laborers
traditional folk costumes that had not was the loose cotton smock frock,
changed for centuries.There were worn since the seventeenth century.
strong regional variations in the The smock was worn over corduroy
colors and decorations used. In one knee-breeches and gaiters (leather
area, all of the men might wear blue bands wrapped around the calves). A
These women are picking
smocks, while in another the color laborer would usually own two
hops, used in brewing. Like would be light gray. In Britain, this smocks: one for working in, and a
many Victorian paintings, regional variation declined as more best one to wear to church on
this presents an idealized
view of life in the men took to wearing the dark suits Sunday. A smock frock was
countryside. of townspeople. comfortable, hard wearing, and

48
 Working Clothes

practical. It kept out the wind, and it wore coats of shoddy. Archer recalled,
could be waterproofed with linseed “These peacocky youngsters would
oil. Looking back to the Victorian cheek the lads in smock-frocks
age in 1904, the garden designer whenever they got the chance, and
Gertrude Jeckyll wrote, “No better many a stand-up fight we used to
thing has ever been devised for any have—regular pitched battles of
outdoor wear.... It turns (repels) an smock-frock against cloth-coat, they
astonishing amount of wet.” were, in which smock-frock held his
own right well.”
During the Victorian period, the
spread of the railroads brought town From the 1860s onward, growing
and country together for the first numbers of farm workers
time. Large numbers of country abandoned their smocks and
people moved to the growing towns gaiters for jackets and
to find work. At country fairs, people trousers, bought
could now see salesmen and other secondhand.
townspeople wearing black suits. Writing in 1884, the novelist
Those who could afford to wanted to Thomas Hardy described the changes
imitate them. he had seen in Dorset fairs: “A
glance up the high street ... twenty
There were different classes in the or thirty years ago revealed a crowd
countryside, with tradesmen, whose general color was whitey-
wheelwrights, and blacksmiths brown.... Now the crowd is as dark
looking down on farm laborers, who as a London crowd.The change is
were the lowest-paid British workers. owing to the rage for cloth clothes
From the 1830s onward, men and which possesses the laborers of
boys from these upper ranks began to today.”
imitate townspeople, dressing in
jackets and trousers made of a cheap
A farm laborer wearing
fabric called shoddy. Shoddy was a smock, sharpens
made by tearing apart older cloth and his scythe.
mixing it with new fibers.The word
has come to mean anything poorly
made or of inferior quality. Countrywomen
Like men, countrywomen imitated the dress of
Joseph Arch (1826–1919), the son of townspeople. In Dorset, the younger women gave up
a shepherd, was one of the few wearing the traditional plain bonnet, cotton gown, and flat
country people to write his boots. They began to wear hats with beads and feathers,
autobiography, which he published in brightly dyed dresses, and boots with heels, like those of
1898. As a boy he wore a smock town ladies. Country folk preferred wearing such clothes,
frock to school along with all of the even though they were secondhand, to brand-new
other sons of farm laborers, while the traditional clothes.
sons of tradesmen and wheelwrights
49
 The Poorest of All
Every large Victorian city had slum tried to gain admittance. Mayhew
districts, where the poor lived in saw a crowd of five hundred waiting
crowded conditions, in badly built for the doors to be opened at five
houses without proper drains or p.m. He described them “shivering in
running water. Large numbers of the the snow, with their thin cobwebby
poor were homeless, sleeping in the garments hanging in tatters about
streets.These people had no choice them. Many are without shirts....
in the clothes they wore, and often Some have their greasy coats and
dressed in rags. trousers tied around their waists with
string, to prevent the piercing wind
The Victorian public was aware of from blowing up them. A few are
the terrible suffering of the poor, without shoes; and these keep one
which was described in the popular foot only to the ground.”
Hans Christian Anderson’s novels of Charles Dickens, and the
story, The Little Match Girl, work of the investigative journalist Workhouses
tells the sad tale of a poor
girl who freezes to death Henry Mayhew.Yet there were big From the 1830s onward, large
on the street on New disagreements about what, if workhouses were built to house
Years’ Eve.
anything, could be done about the those who could not support
situation. Many Victorians blamed themselves. In many ways a
the poor for their poverty, arguing workhouse resembled a Victorian
that it was their laziness that was to prison. So that the poor would only
blame. use it as a last resort, conditions were
designed to be harsher than those of
In his book London Labour and the the lowest-paid workers outside.
London Poor (1862), Mayhew Men, women, and children all lived
described the Asylum for the in different wings, and the separation
Houseless Poor, an East London of families was bitterly resented.
institution offering temporary shelter
to the homeless when the The men broke stones, ground bones
temperature dropped below freezing to make fertilizer, and unpicked old
point.There was room for three rope, also a punishment given to
hundred people, though many more prisoners.The women cooked,

Crossing Sweepers
It was illegal to beg in Victorian Britain. To get around the law, poor
boys swept the streets, asking people who crossed for money. They
could be arrested for doing even this. In 1856, Jack, a fifteen-year-old
London crossing sweeper told Henry Mayhew, “If there’s a policeman
close at hand we mustn’t ask for money....We never carries no pockets,
for if the policemen find us we generally pass the money to our mates,
for if money’s found on us we have fourteen days in prison.”

50
 Working Clothes

Many poor children went

barefoot, like two of the
boys here, photographed on
a London street in 1885.

cleaned, and sewed the workhouse

uniforms, made of coarse linen.
Charles Shaw, who as a boy in 1842
was taken to a workhouse with his
family, later wrote, “We youngsters
were roughly disrobed, roughly and
coldly washed, and roughly attired in
rough clothes, our under garments
being all covered up by a rough linen
pinafore.Then we parted amid bitter
cries, the young ones being taken
away and the parents ... taken as well
to different regions.”

The same system operated in the

United States, where workhouses
were called poorhouses. According to
an 1898 newspaper article about the
Boston poorhouse, in the previous
year the female inmates had made
1,412 aprons, 891 dresses, 492
nightgowns, 993 petticoats, and 43
shrouds. A shroud was a plain white
cotton garment worn by the dead A poor woman, dressed in
inmates for burial. rags, holding her baby.

51
 Chapter 6: Late Victorian Fashions:
1860–1901
rom the 1860s until the end of the Victorian era,
F women’s fashions went through major changes as
the crinoline fell from favor. Late-Victorian women
aimed for a curving “hourglass” figure with a tiny waist
and large hips and bust.This was achieved with long,
shaped corsets which were tighter laced than at any
time since the 1830s.The fashionable female shape also
grew taller and more imposing, with high heels and
This corset shows how hairstyles piled up on top of the head. Men’s fashions,
tightly laced women had to
be to achieve an
as always in the nineteenth century, saw only minor
“hourglass figure.” changes.
The Bustle
In 1864 the designer Charles
Frederick Worth decided that it was
time to do away with the crinoline,
now worn by even poor women. In
its place he designed a dress which
was flat at the front and sides, with a
long train behind. It had a cushion
padded with horsehair sewn to the
back of the skirt, later called a bustle.
Piled over the bustle he put a mass of
cloth in folds decorated with ruffles
and bows.Worth’s new look made
the fabric tumble behind, like a
waterfall. It required far more fabric
than the crinoline and it was much
more impractical to wear. It was
heavy, making the dress trail along
the ground, and it was difficult to sit
in comfortably.Worth saw the bustle
and train, which was soon to be the
height of fashion, as his greatest
achievement. He would later boast, “I
dethroned the crinoline.”

Like most new women’s fashions, the

long, trailing dress was mocked by
52
 Late Victorian Fashions

men. An 1867 cartoon in Punch

shows a lady whose dress disappears
behind a door. She says to a male
companion, “Oh, how tiresome!
Somebody must be standing on my
dress! Would you just run down-stairs
and see who it is Mr Brown!” In
1876 the writer John Ruskin
complained, “I have lost much of the
faith I once had in the common
sense ... of the present race of average
English women by seeing how they
will allow their dresses to sweep the
streets.” These two women wear
the long trailing evening
dresses of the 1880s, with
The bustle shrank to a small pad in large padded bustles.
the late 1870s, only to reappear in an
exaggerated form in the 1880s, when a shift to looser, more comfortable
it stuck out like a shelf, two feet (0.6 clothes. In 1878 The Tailor and Cutter
m) behind the wearer.This shelf was trade journal complained, “We are
achieved with half hoops of steel rapidly degenerating into a slipshod
bands, sewn into the lining of state of things. After a time Frock
underskirts. Cartoons showed people coats and even Morning coats will be
resting tea trays on the shelf bustles. entirely a thing of the past and if
things go on in this way will only be
Relaxation for Men seen at museums where they will
While men continued to dress serve to amuse a wondering and
formally in the evening, day wear saw awestricken group of sightseers.”

Dundreary Whiskers
In the 1860s, there was a fashion for men to grow waxed
moustaches with long “Dundreary” side whiskers, named
after Lord Dundreary, a character played by the English
actor Edward Sothern in a stage comedy, Our American
Cousin. This was such a popular hit that it ran for
almost five hundred nights in London. It was at an
American performance of the play, in 1865, that
President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Despite
the assassination, Sothern continued to play the role to
packed audiences until the 1880s.

53
 Dress Reform
The late nineteenth century saw Dr. Jaeger
several attempts to reform the way Dr. Gustav Jaeger was a German
that both men and women dressed. zoology professor, who invented the
Some reformers claimed that “Sanitary Woolen System” in the
Victorian clothes, especially those 1870s. Jaeger argued that, for health
worn by women, were unhealthy and reasons, all clothes should be made of
impractical. Others rejected them on wool, claiming that cotton and linen
grounds of aesthetics (concern for did not “breathe.” He rejected
beauty). trousers in favor of knee-breeches
and socks, which he said were also
better for the circulation. Although
Jaeger’s theories were scientifically
incorrect, he found more followers
than any other dress reformer.The
most famous of them was the Irish
playwright George Bernard Shaw,
who wore woolen “Jaeger suits”
from the 1880s until his death in
1950.

Oscar Wilde
The Irish writer Oscar Wilde was
another reformer who wanted men
to wear knee-breeches, though his
arguments were based on aesthetics
rather than health. In 1890 he wrote,
“The costume of the nineteenth
century is detestable. It is so sombre,
so depressing.”Wilde preferred the
fashions of the seventeenth century,
when men wore long hair and richly
Gustav Jaeger proudly colored clothes with wide hats and
models his all-woolen suit,
which he promoted for cloaks. Describing trousers as “boring
health reasons. tubes,” he took to wearing satin

Combinations
For underwear, Dr. Gustav Jaeger promoted knitted woolen “combinations,” a body stocking
which covered the body from the neck to the ankles. Jaeger claimed that the itchiness of wool
against the skin stimulated blood circulation. Woolen combinations, recommended by many
doctors, were widely worn from the 1880s onward. One London woman later recalled, “I still
remember the childhood misery of tickly Jaeger combinations.”

54
 Late Victorian Fashions

knee-breeches with silk stockings. weighted skirts, as rendering healthy An illustration from an
Wilde was mocked in the newspapers exercise almost impossible.” exhibition of “rational
dress” for girls and
and found few imitators. His clothes women. None of them
were seen as effeminate (unmanly). The society saw dress reform as part of wear tight corsets, huge
bustles or trailing dresses.
a wider campaign for women’s right to
Rational Dress vote, which was not won until 1920 in
In 1881 two Englishwomen, Mrs. the United States, and 1928 in Britain.
Emily King and Viscountess Viscountess Harberton argued that by
Harberton, formed the Rational Dress dressing in a foolish way, women
Society, dedicated to making women showed men that they were not
dress in a rational, or sensible, way. sensible enough to be given the vote.
Each issue of the society’s monthly
gazette began with this statement: Harberton promoted the “divided
“The Rational Dress Society protests skirt,” a pair of baggy trousers
against the introduction of any designed to resemble a skirt. Like
fashion in dress that either deforms Amelia Bloomer before her, she was
the figure, impedes the movements of mocked for dressing in a manly way,
the body, or in any way tends to and was once refused entrance to a
injure the health. It protests against hotel for wearing trousers. Only a
the wearing of tightly-fitting corsets; few upper-class women were brave
of high-heeled shoes; of heavily- enough to follow her example.
55
 New York Society
In the late nineteenth century, there wore their most expensive clothes,
were more millionaires living in New including elaborate bonnets
York than in any other city in the decorated with flowers, feathers, and
world.These were men who had ribbons, to stroll along Fifth Avenue
grown rich by investing in new to and from church.This grew into a
industries such as the railroads, steel, tourist attraction as ordinary
and oil.They built huge mansions Americans went to Fifth Avenue to
along New York’s Fifth Avenue, watch the rich on their “Easter
which came to be called Millionaire’s Parade.” In 1890 the New York Tribune
Row, and their wives spent vast sums reported, “The Easter bonnets and
Wealthy New Yorkers spent
on Parisian fashions. the Easter trousers rioted in
large sums of money on gorgeousness.... From Madison
French evening dresses, Easter Bonnets Square to Central Park the sidewalks
such as this example
decorated with From the 1870s onward, Easter were rivers of beautiful raiment and
chrysanthemums. Sunday was a day when the rich happy faces.”This is one Victorian
custom which continues in the
twenty-first century.

High Society
In Europe, the leaders of fashionable
society were the royal families and
nobles.The United States, however,
had no royal family and no dukes or
duchesses. In the late nineteenth
century, upper-class Americans
created their own aristocracy in
which families that had been rich for
generations looked down on those
with “new money.” Ward McAllister,
who organized balls and parties, said,
“With the rapid growth of riches,
millionaires are too common to
receive much deference.... So we
have to draw social boundaries on
another basis: old connections, gentle
breeding.”

Four Hundred
The leading figure in New York
society was Mrs Caroline Astor,
whose family wealth came from
property development. Her ballroom
was large enough to hold four
56
 Late Victorian Fashions

Feathers
In late-Victorian New York society, it became the fashion to decorate hats
with feathers from birds, including gulls, ostriches, hawks, and songbirds.
Some women even wore stuffed birds on their hats. Every autumn,
hundreds of thousands of wild birds were shot to adorn women’s hats.
Bird lovers campaigned against the fashion, which was also denounced
in church by preachers. In 1898 Dr. H. M. Wharton, a Baltimore
churchman, said, “It is wholesale murder.... I have commented from the
pulpit frequently upon the evil of women wearing birds’ wings or bodies
of birds on their hats, for I have long considered it a cruel custom.”

hundred guests, which was said to be

the number of New Yorkers
belonging to High Society.
McAllister, who controlled the
invitations to Astor’s balls, told the
press, “There are only about four
hundred people in fashionable New-
York society. If you go outside that
number you strike people who are
either not at ease in a ball-room or
else make other people not at ease.”

Fancy Dress
Many of the balls were costume
parties, in which guests competed to
wear the most inventive, luxurious,
and expensive outfits. One of the
most costly balls was held by
Caroline Astor’s great rival, Alva
Vanderbilt, in March 1883.The guests
included people dressed as kings,
queens, famous explorers, and
shepherdesses. Mrs.W. Seward Webb
came as a hornet, and Alva’s sister-in-
law, Alice Vanderbilt, dressed as
“Electric Light,” the recent invention
of Thomas Edison. She wore a white
satin gown decorated with glistening
diamonds, and a battery-operated hat This pale, sleeveless evening gown from 1890 has a pointed waist, watered
with lights. silk drapery at the back, and a sash of flowers across the bodice.

57
 The End of the Century
In the 1890s, the clothes of both men 1898 The Tailor and Cutter journal
and women grew simpler, with a predicted that the starched shirtfront
greater emphasis on comfort and would be “of considerable interest to
freedom.The impractical bustle the future historian of the sartorial
disappeared from women’s dresses. [clothing-related] instruments of
Cycling offered late-
Men of all classes began to wear torture of the nineteenth century.”
nineteenth-century women
a new freedom, shown in informal straw hats. For formal
the comfortable occasions, comfortable soft shirts Hats
knickerbockers and relaxed
poses of these Parisian
replaced the heavily starched In the 1890s, instead of wearing top
ladies. shirtfronts of the previous decade. In hats, many men took to wearing

58
 Late Victorian Fashions

smaller hats, including straw hats, the sight of women riding bicycles.
bowlers, and trilbies.The bowler was The English novelist Eliza Lynn
a hard, dome-shaped hat with a Linton, born in 1822, wrote, “This
curled brim. It was called a derby in modern bicycling craze is not only
the United States, after the earl of far beyond a girl’s strength but it
Derby who made it fashionable.The tends to destroy the sweet simplicity
trilby was a soft felt hat with a of a girl’s nature. Besides, how
dented brim, named after a character dreadful it would be if by some
who wore it in a popular London strange accident she were to fall off
stage play of 1895. into the arms of a strange man!”

In 1899 the clothing trade journal End of an Era

London Tailor complained of the In 1897, as the century drew to a
decline of the top hat: “So great is close, The Tailor and Cutter looked
the modern tendency to sacrifice back at the strange fashions, such as
appearance to comfort that before the crinoline and the bustle, worn
long it is feared the silk hat will only throughout the Victorian era.The
be seen in the City and Piccadilly.” journal predicted, “Sixty years hence
we shall probably appear as ridiculous
Cycling in the eyes of that generation as our
Although the Rational Dress ancestors appear today in ours.”
Society’s 1880s campaign to make
women wear divided skirts had The Tailor-Made
failed, just ten years later, women in The 1890s saw the coming of
Europe and the United States could the “tailor-made” for women.
be seen wearing knickerbockers Modeled on the male suit, this
reaching to just below the knees.The was a close-fitting plain skirt and
reason was the spread of a new craze jacket, worn over a simple white
for cycling. In 1896 Susan B. blouse. The tailor-made was the
Anthony, an American campaigner dress of choice for the growing
for women’s rights, said, “the bicycle number of women now working
has done more for the emancipation in new jobs, such as secretaries,
(freedom) of women than anything telephone operators, store
else in the world.” assistants, and teachers. In 1898
London Tailor announced, “The
Women’s bicycles were built with only really new dress development
low crossbars, enabling them to wear which has taken place during the
skirts if they chose. Most women last half century has been the
preferred skirts to knickerbockers, but evolution of the tailor-made gown
cycling required that they were which is doubtless due to the
practical. Bustles and tight corsets active life now led by women of
could not be worn by cyclists. every class.”
Some older people were shocked by
59
 Timeline
1829 Sir Robert Peel founds the first 1864 The first dresses with bustles are
professional police force, whose made.
officers wear uniforms modeled on 1870s Crinoline makers go out of business.
those of servants. 1881 The first war between Britain and
1830 Joseph Palmer shocks the town of the Boers, in which British soldiers
Fitchburg, Connecticut, by growing a fight in scarlet jackets.
beard. The Rational Dress Society is
1833 Walter Hunt invents the first founded, to reform women’s
practical sewing machine. clothing.
1837 Queen Victoria comes to the throne. 1883 The wide “shelf bustle” becomes
1840 Wearing a white dress, Queen fashionable.
Victoria marries Prince Albert. 1885 The publication of Little Lord
1846 Elias Howe patents his sewing Fauntleroy leads to a fashion for
machine. boys’ velvet knee-breeches.
1846–52 The first department stores open 1888 John Dunlop invents inflatable
in Paris, New York, and Newcastle. bicycle tires. The resulting cycling
1849 Walter Hunt invents the safety pin. craze makes it acceptable for
1851 The Great Exhibition in Britain women to wear knee-breeches.
includes displays of fashion and The first Sears Roebuck mail-order
textiles. catalog is produced.
Amelia Bloomer promotes a trouser 1892 The zip fastener is invented by
costume for women. Whitcomb Judson.
Isaac Merritt Singer produces an 1899 – The Second Boer War, with British
improved sewing machine. 1900 soldiers now fighting in khaki
1854–6 The Crimean War, in which Britain, uniforms.
France, and Turkey fight Russia, 1901 The death of Queen Victoria.
leads to the introduction of looser
tunics for the military.
1856 The steel-hooped crinoline is
invented.
William Perkin makes the first
artificial dye, from coal tar.
1857 Charles Frederick Worth opens the
first haute couture business, in
Paris.
1860 John Barron uses the band knife to
cut several layers of cloth at once.
1861 The death of Prince Albert. Queen
Victoria goes into mourning dress.
Knee breeches are now worn by
men for walking in the country.
1861–5 The American Civil War, fought by
the North in dark blue and the
South in gray uniforms.
60
Glossary
boater A round straw hat with a flat brim 1809 book, Knickerbocker’s History of New
and narrow flat crown, originally based on York, which has illustrations of such clothes
those worn by sailors. worn by seventeenth-century Dutch settlers.
bowler A hard felt hat with a narrow brim linen A fabric made from the fibers of the
and a round crown. flax plant.
bustle A pad or frame worn at the back of a morning coat A men’s coat with tails, worn
dress, to make the rear stick out. in the daytime. Unlike a black evening coat,
calico Coarse light cotton, used for which had a cutaway square front, a morning
underwear and shirts, named after Calcutta, coat had a curved front and came in various
India, its place of origin. colors.
combinations Body-stocking underwear, so morning dress Formal daywear worn by men
called because it combined vest and and women.
leggings. mourning The period following the death of
corduroy A hard-wearing, ridged cotton a loved one, when special dark clothes were
fabric worn by laborers. Its name derives worn to show sorrow.
from the French corde du roy (king’s cord). muslin A fine, delicately woven cotton
cravat Elaborate neckwear worn by men in fabric.
the early 1800s. A long band of folded navvy A laborer building railroads and
muslin was wrapped around the neck and canals. The name is short for navigator.
tied in a knot or bow. satin A glossy fabric made from silk.
crepe A dull, crinkled black silk fabric, worn shoddy A cheap fabric made by tearing up
for mourning. Also spelled crape. old cloth and mixing it with new fibers.
crinoline Originally a petticoat stiffened silk A fine, strong, soft fabric made from
with horsehair (crin in French). From 1856 the cocoons spun by silkworms.
onward, the word was applied to the cage smock A long, loose, thick shirt, usually
crinoline, made of steel hoops. cotton, worn by farm laborers and other
denim A tough cotton fabric, woven from manual workers.
two different-colored threads, with a twill, or spin Draw out and twist fibers, such as
diagonal, weave. The name comes from wool or cotton, to make thread.
Serge de Nimes (Nimes Serge). starch Vegetable extracts used to stiffen
evening dress Formal dress worn for social material, such as shirtfronts and collars.
occasions, such as dinners and balls, in the stays Another name for corsets.
evenings. Men wore white shirts and ties tailor-made A woman’s suit, with simple
with black tailcoats and trousers, while jacket and skirt, worn in the late nineteenth
women wore low-cut dresses with jewelry. century.
felt A fabric with matted fibers, usually top hat A formal black hat, made from felt
animal hairs. or silk, with a high crown.
frock coat A long men’s jacket with a trilby A soft felt hat with a brim and a dent
square front. in the top, named after a character in an
jean A tough twilled material made from 1895 stage play by George du Maurier.
wool and cotton, used for work wear, and tweed A tough, thick woolen cloth with a
named after Genoa, Italy. diagonal weave, originally from Scotland. Its
knickerbockers Loose-fitting knee- name comes from a misreading of the word
breeches, named after Washington Irving’s twill, spelt tweel on a bill.
61
 Further Information
Adult Reference Sources
twill A diagonal weave, which gives fabrics
Bradfield, Nancy, Costume in Detail: Women’s
extra strength.
Dress, 1730-1930 (Eric Dobby Publishing,
weave To form cloth by interlacing threads
1998)
from two different directions. Lengthwise, or
Cosgrave, Bronwyn, Costume and Fashion: A
warp, threads are stretched on a frame
Complete History (Hamlyn, 2003)
called a loom. A second thread, the weft, is
Gernsheim, Alison, Victorian and Edwardian
then passed from side to side.
Fashion: A Photographic Survey (Dover
whipcord A tough wool fabric with raised
Publications, 1982)
ridges.
Grafton, Carol, Victorian Fashions: A Pictorial
Archive (Dover Publications, 1999)

Young Adult Reference Sources

Nunn, Joan, Fashion in Costume 1200-2000
(A & C Black, 2000)
Goodwin, Jane, All about the Victorians (Hodder
Wayland, 2001)
Kramer, Anne, Eyewitness Guide: The Victorians
(Dorling Kindersley, 2003)
Langley, Andrew, Victorian Britain (Heinemann
Library, 1994)

Internet Resources
http://www.fashion-era.com/victorians.htm
All about Victorian society, with numerous
sections on fashion and costume.

http://www.lahacal.org/gentleman/behavior.
html
The Gentleman’s Page: A Practical Guide for
the Nineteenth-Century American Man.

http://www.speel.demon.co.uk/other/
grtexhib.htm
The Great Exhibition of 1851.

http://www.charlesfrederickworth.org
Charles Frederick Worth.

http://www.hairarchives.com/private/
victorian1new.htm
Women’s hair in Victorian times. Includes
archive photographs.
62
http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/
victcfsh.html
Slightly silly Victorian fashions.

http://www.fathom.com/course/21701726/
session1.html
The Secret History of the Corset and Crinoline.

http://www.rogerco.freeserve.co.uk/
Victorian and Edwardian photographs.

http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/
victlinks.htm
Victorian fashion links.

http://www.fashion-era.com/the_victorian
_era.htm
Fashion Era: The Victorian Era.

http://www.fashionera.com/the_victorian_
era.htm
Eras of Elegance: Victorian.

http://histclo.hispeed.com/
Historical boys clothing.

http://www.fabrics.net/joan800.asp
Vintage Fabric: A History of Sweatshops.

http://www.geocities.com/victorianlace11/
mourning.html
“The Mourning After:” Victorian Mourning
Customs.

http://www.costumes.org/classes/fashion
dress/dress_reformblip.htm
Victorian dress reform links.

63
 Index
Page numbers in bold refer to linen 25, 29, 30, 51, 61 mail-order catalogs 26, 26, 60
illustrations. muslin 7, 25, 61 mourning clothes 32–3, 60
satin 30, 34, 35, 57, 61
aprons 38, 45, 45, 51 shoddy 49, 61 nightclothes 34, 51
silk 5, 10, 16, 22, 23, 26, 32, 33,
babies’ clothes 30 34, 55, 57, 59, 61 pajamas 34
bathing costumes 37, 37 tweed 36, 37, 61 perfume 23
bloomers 14, 14, 60 velvet 34, 60 Perkin,William 22–3, 60
Bloomer, Amelia Jenks 14, 55, 60 woolen cloth 11, 16, 29, 54 petticoats 8, 14, 15, 31, 51
blouses 31, 59 facial hair 12–13, 13, 41, 53, 60 poor people’s clothes 50–1
bustles 7, 52–3, 53, 58, 59, 60, 61 feathers 6, 49, 56, 57, 57
footwear Rational Dress Society 55, 55, 59,
canes 5, 10 ankle boots 15, 15 60
children’s clothes 28–9, 30–1, 36–7 boots 37, 38, 39, 49
christening robes 30, 30 shoes 8, 50, 55 sailor suits 30–1
clobberers 28, 29 slippers 8, 15 secondhand clothes 28–9, 33, 49
coats 6, 29, 34, 35, 38, 40, 44, 49, 50 servants’ clothes 44–5
dress coats 28, 34 gaiters 48, 49 sewing machines 5, 20–1, 20, 21,
frock coats 11, 29, 34, 41, 53, 61 gowns 22, 40, 49 60
morning coats 34, 53, 61 Great Exhibition, the 27, 27, 60 shirtfronts 34, 58
overcoats 34, 35
shirts 6, 34, 36, 58
colors 8, 10, 22–3, 32, 33, 34, 36,
hairstyles 12–13, 12, 30, 31, 41, skirts 6, 8, 14, 31, 55, 59
42, 43, 48, 54
44–5, 52, 54 smelling salts 9, 9
corsets 6, 7, 8–9, 10, 15, 18, 19, 37,
hats 6, 8, 18–19, 31, 34–5, 37, 38, smock frocks 39, 48–9, 49, 61
52, 52, 55, 59
cosmetics 9 39, 42, 49, 54, 57, 57, 58–9 socks 36, 54
cravats 7, 10, 45, 61 bonnets 8, 8, 30, 49, 56 stays (see corsets)
crinolines 14–15, 15, 52, 59, 60, 61 bowlers (or derbies) 46, 59, 61 stealing clothes 29
caps 28, 34, 38, 38, 41, 45, 45 stocks 10
deerstalkers 36 suits 32, 38, 39, 48, 49, 54, 59
dandies 6, 7
department stores 26–7, 60 helmets 40
dishabille 34 paper hats 39 tailor-made 59, 61
dressmaking 24–5 straw hats and boaters 36, 37, 58, toile 25
dresses 6, 8, 9, 11, 15, 21, 22, 24, 59, 61 translators 28–9
25, 28, 30, 34, 36, 37, 45, 45, 49, top hats 10, 11, 11, 18, 34, 39, trousers 6, 14, 30, 34, 36, 43, 46,
51, 52, 58, 60 40–1, 58, 59, 61 47, 49, 50, 54, 55, 56
day dresses 23 trilbies 59, 61 tunics 43, 60
evening dresses 8, 9, 34, 35, 53,
56, 57 jackets 10, 11, 14, 28, 31, 34, 36, underwear 31, 51
morning dresses 34 37, 38, 42, 46, 47, 49, 59, 60 uniforms 21, 38, 40–3, 44, 45, 51
mourning dresses 32, 33 blazers 36–7, 36 livery 44, 44
wedding dresses 30, 31, 31, 60 breakfast jackets 34 military uniforms 42–3, 42, 43, 60
dressing gowns 34, 34 hunting pink 36 police uniforms 40–1, 40, 60
dyes and dyeing 22–3, 49, 60 smoking jackets 34 prisoner uniforms 41, 41
Jaeger, Gustav 54, 54 school uniforms 36–7
Eugénie, Empress 22, 24, 24 jeans 47
evening dress 34, 44, 61 jewelry 9, 11, 12, 32 veils 30, 32, 33
Victoria, Queen 5, 8, 11, 22, 31,
fabrics knee-breeches 6, 36, 37, 39, 44, 45, 31, 32, 60
cotton 16–17, 29, 30, 46, 47, 48, 46, 48, 54–5, 60
51 knickerbockers 58, 59, 61 waistcoats 6, 28, 34, 44, 47
corduroy 46–7, 48, 61 wigs 11, 40, 44
felt 10, 18, 61 leisure wear 36–7 Wilde, Oscar 7, 15, 54–5
flannel 36 "Little Lord Fauntleroy" costumes Worth, Charles Frederick 24–5, 35,
fur 18, 19 31, 60 52, 60
64