Category Archives: ~Clothing

Victorian Fashion

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Elaborate dresses, lavish balls, a beautiful countryside and images straight from the canvas of the great artists come to my mind when I think about the Victorian era. The Victorian period or the Victorian era can be termed as the period under the reign of Queen Victoria. This period was between the year-1837 to 1901. I am sure many women would love to slip back into time and fulfill their dream of wearing bustle skirts with some fancy feathered hats at some point in their lives! Rich fabrics and genteel women attending fancy dos with cultured men are some of the glimpses of the life back then! Here’s a look at the kind of fashion followed in the Victorian Era. Victorian fashion has many interesting things to note and you can delve into the depths of Victorian fashion, right here!

Victorian Fashion:
The term Victorian fashion is generally used only with regard to the United Kingdom. There were certain clothing styles and mannerisms that were observed during this period. In the early period of the Victorian Era, the silhouette for the woman was more of the demure kind. Women wore pointed bodice, which were long and had fitting waists. The bodice was designed to enhance the waist. In the early period, Victorian clothing for women was about restriction of arm movements. Another interesting feature were the detachable collars! The colors used in the early period of the Victorian fashion were soft, pastel shades. Patterns were delicate and fashionable, all designed to maintain the femininity of the woman.

Beehive shaped skirts was another characteristic feature of Victorian fashion. Here, garments were stiffened to give a particular appearance. Crin also known as horsehair, was used for a particular portion of a garment so that it stiffens in that particular area. Crin was used for hem linings and sleeve heads of the dresses.

Although cloth was manufactured in the mills, Victorian clothing in 1837 was generally designed and assembled by tailors and other such specialized people who were into designing clothes and hats. These people catered to only a specific few of the society who could afford this service; others stitched their clothes at home.

Bell shaped skirts also became a rage and these became wider in the 1830s. The bell shape soon became dome shaped. As these skirts became bigger and flared out, they also needed support from the inside. Victorian dresses therefore needed to be worn with a lot of petticoats. The lower portion was also supported by horsehair, which were woven into the pattern for the stiffened look.

The cashmere shawl was also a prominent feature of Victorian fashion. It was particularly noticed in 1840. By then, the shawl was used as wrap over the dresses. Women also wore heavy fabrics such as satins and silks and there was also a time when fabric dictated the status of the person in the society as well.

Slowly these huge ballooned Victorian skirts gave way to the hobble skirts. Hobble skirts brought into fashion narrow skirts, where in knee length corsets were combined with the entire ensemble. Hobble skirts often restricted movement, which is probably why they have been given this name. These slim skirts created a problem for women in the comfort factor yet they gained popularity with time. Today, the slim pencil skirt can still be witnessed in the fashion scenario in many modified ways.

Apart from horsehair, bustles were also used to increase the fullness of the skirts. Bustles were used to make the waist look smaller. Many times, the fullness of the fashion was spread out towards the back and this often fanned out in the shape of a train. Bustles were also seen in different shapes. Sometimes, these also created a hump below the waist area on the backside, which was considered to be a fashion statement in the Victorian era. The bustle therefore, can be considered to be yet another typical feature of Victorian fashion.

Victorian fashion for men was about Norfolk jackets and the sack suits. Men preferred to don themselves in casual attire.

Victorian fashion was thus quite elaborate as far as women’s clothing was concerned. Victorian clothing is still very much popular and the basics have been woven into new modern designs to create contemporary attire!

History Of The Boot

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THESE BOOTS ARE MADE NOT ONLY FOR WALKING but for working in all kinds of weather—and looking smart, too. They were introduced in 1817 by Hoby of St. James’s Street, London, the personal shoemaker of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, famous for defeating Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellingtons were initially designed to look good with the newfangled men’s fashion of wearing long trousers instead of knee breeches.

The boot’s predecessor, the Hessian, had a curvy folded-down top and heavy braid.The duke wanted something simpler, made from soft calfskin and cut closer to the leg. Sturdy enough to be battle-hardy yet stylish enough to be worn in the evening, the Wellington allowed the British gentry to look like their favorite war hero while standing tall in polished boots.

However, it was an American named Henry Lee Norris who came up with the idea of producing the Wellington in rubber. (Charles Goodyear had recently patented the process of vulcanizing.) The British Isles had a wet, muddy climate, so Norris headed to Scotland and, in 1856, founded the North British Rubber Company to produce the weather-resistant boots that were to become famous.

The Wellington has gone through many changes since its schizoid days as a foppish combat boot. In the 1860s, it was worn by soldiers in the American Civil War. And the cowboy boot was modeled after the full V- Wellington, so called because the whole front and whole Q£ back are each made from a single piece.

Production took off during both World Wars, when the military requested sturdy rubber footwear that would keep soldiers’ feet dry in the flooded trenches and provide civilians with long-lasting boots during wartime rationing. Introduced to Wellingtons in a time of great hardship, British men, women, and children have never given them up, and their appeal has spread far beyond the home turf.

In New Zealand,Wellies—or gumboots, as they’re known Down Under—come in white for doctors and nurses in rural hospitals. Green is a favorite with the Brits (Lady Diana Spencer was a green girl long before she married her prince), while black ones with brick-red soles can often be seen on fishermen up and down the U.S. East Coast and into Canada’s Maritime Provinces.

Today, children the world over splash through puddles in Wellies styled to look like ladybugs, ducks, and frogs. And, thanks to designers such as Paul Smith and Karl Lagerfeld, the streets of many a rainy fashion capital are a riot of Wellies decorated in candy colors, wild stripes, and funky prints.