The Victorian Era

Women's Victorian Fashion

Article · Fashion & Dress · The Victorian Era, 1837–1901

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Women’s fashion was the most elaborate, the most codified, and the most discussed of all Victorian fashions. The silhouette of the Victorian lady, with her tightly corseted waist, her full skirts, her elaborate sleeves, and her towering headdress, was the visual signature of the age, and it has been reproduced in countless books, films, and television series. The history of women’s fashion in the period is, in many ways, the history of the period itself, and it reflects the social, economic, and political changes of the sixty-four years of the reign. The context of the period is set out in The Victorian Era: A Complete Historical Overview, and the broader context of dress is examined in Victorian Fashion and Dress.

The Silhouette of the Period

The silhouette of women’s fashion changed several times over the Victorian period, but the basic shape, with its tightly fitted bodice, its tiny waist, and its full skirt, was consistent throughout. The variations were in the size of the skirt, in the shape of the sleeves, in the height of the collar, and in the depth of the décolletage. The early Victorian period, the 1830s and 1840s, was dominated by the romantic full-skirted dress with its pointed waist, its gigot or leg-of-mutton sleeves, and its tiered skirts worn over stiffened petticoats. The mid-Victorian period, the 1850s and 1860s, was dominated by the crinoline, the great dome-shaped skirt of the period, and by the introduction of the sewing machine, of aniline dyes, and of the new mass-produced fabrics. The late Victorian period, the 1870s to the 1890s, was dominated by the bustle, the trained dress, the tailored jacket, the leg-of-mutton sleeve of the 1890s, and the S-bend corset. The evolution of the crinoline is examined in How did the crinoline evolve?.

The silhouette of the period was created by the undergarments, which were the foundation of the whole. The Victorian lady’s underclothes included the chemise, the drawers, the corset, the bust bodice or the bust improver, the petticoat, the crinoline or the bustle, the stockings, the garters, and the shoes or boots. The underclothes were made of fine cotton or linen, often trimmed with lace or embroidery, and they were a major industry in their own right. The corset, in particular, was a defining garment of the period, and it was the subject of one of the great dress reform controversies of the late Victorian period. The history of the dress reform movement is examined below.

1837–1850: The Early Victorian Period

The early Victorian woman of the late 1830s and 1840s wore a dress with a tightly fitted bodice ending in a pointed waist, a full skirt supported by several starched and corded petticoats, sleeves that grew to enormous gigot or leg-of-mutton proportions at the shoulder before tapering to a tight fit at the wrist, and a poke bonnet that came low over the forehead. The gigot sleeve reached its widest in the mid-1830s and gradually narrowed through the 1840s. Skirts were trimmed with deep flounces, often three or four deep, in matching or contrasting fabric. The neckline was high by day, with a stand or turnover collar of fine lawn or net, and only modestly lowered for evening. The fabrics were silks and satins for evening, and figured cottons, fine wools, and tarlatan for day. The look is examined in more detail in What did Victorian women wear in the 1850s?.

1850–1870: The Mid-Victorian Period

The mid-Victorian decades saw the crinoline dominate the silhouette. The horsehair petticoat of the 1840s gave way to the corded petticoat of the late 1840s, the netted petticoat of the early 1850s, and the cage crinoline of 1856, which by 1859 had produced skirts of unprecedented width. The gigot sleeves of the 1840s had by 1855 been replaced by close-fitting sleeves with a deep cuff at the elbow, the pagoda sleeve with its flaring shape, and the bertha collar that draped across the shoulders. The sewing machine, perfected in the late 1850s, made these elaborate constructions possible for the middle class. The history of the crinoline is examined in How did the crinoline evolve?.

1870–1900: The Late Victorian Period

The late Victorian period saw three distinct phases. The first, from 1870 to about 1876, saw the rise of the bustle, in which the back of the skirt was gathered up over a frame, a half-cage, or a stuffed pad, to project behind. The second, the natural form of about 1878 to 1881, saw the bustle vanish, the waist drop to a point just above the hips, and the skirt fall in a slim sheath from the shoulders. The third, from 1883 to 1889, saw the return of the bustle in its most extreme, shelf-like form, supported by a half-cage of steel and wire that projected almost at right angles from the small of the back.

By the early 1890s the bustle had gone for good, and the silhouette of the new decade was the leg-of-mutton sleeve, with its enormous fullness at the shoulder tapering to a tight fit at the wrist, combined with a full flared skirt. The new S-bend corset, which threw the weight of the body onto the toes and pushed the hips back, replaced the old straight-fronted corset of the 1880s. By the end of the decade the sleeve had shrunk to almost nothing, and the bell-shaped skirt of the Edwardian Merry Widow era was beginning to take shape. The history of the bustle is examined in What was a Victorian bustle?.

The Materials

The materials of women’s fashion were extraordinarily varied. The basic fabrics were cotton, linen, wool, and silk, joined by a growing range of new fabrics, including the machine-made lace of Nottingham, the Paisley shawl of Scotland, the silk of Macclesfield and Spitalfields, the wool of Yorkshire, and the cotton of Lancashire. The new industrial processes of the period — the spinning of fine cotton yarns, the weaving of figured silks, the printing of calicoes, the bleaching of linens, and the dyeing of woollens — made a wide range of fabrics available at prices the expanding middle class could afford. The new aniline dyes of the 1850s and 1860s gave the Victorian palette its characteristic colours: the deep purples of mauveine, the bright pinks of magenta, the rich greens of viridian, and the brilliant blues of ultramarine. The history of textiles is examined in The Victorian Economy and Industrialization.

The Accessories

The accessories of women’s fashion were an essential part of the whole. The Victorian lady’s accessories included the bonnet, the hat, the veil, the shawl, the cape, the muff, the gloves, the fan, the parasol, the reticule or handbag, the handkerchief, the brooch, the earrings, the necklace, the bracelet, the ring, the watch, and the chatelaine. The bonnet, the hat, and the veil were a particular feature of the period, and the elaborate bonnets of the 1840s, with their wide brims and their streamers, were a defining feature of the early Victorian silhouette. The parasol, examined in How did Victorians use parasols?, was an essential accessory for the Victorian lady. The jewellery of the period is examined in Victorian Accessories and Jewelry.

The Hair and the Beauty

The hair and the beauty of the Victorian lady were central to her appearance. The Victorian lady’s hair was generally long, parted in the middle, and drawn back into a chignon or a knot, often augmented with switches, hair pads, and false braids. The hair was dressed with pomade, with bandoline, and with hairpins, and ornamented with flowers, ribbons, combs, and hairpins. The cosmetics of the period were generally restricted to face powder, rouge, lip salve, and a few other discreet preparations, and the natural look was the ideal. The history of hair is examined in Victorian Hair and Beauty, and the history of cosmetics is examined in What were Victorian beauty products?.

The Wedding Dress

The wedding dress was the most important dress a Victorian woman would ever wear, and it was a major social event. The wedding dress of the early Victorian period was generally of a coloured fabric, often a rich silk or satin, and the white wedding dress, which is now the universal convention, became fashionable only in the second half of the century. The white wedding dress was popularised by Queen Victoria, who wore a white satin dress for her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840, and the convention was gradually adopted by the upper and middle classes through the second half of the century. The wedding dress was accompanied by the orange blossom wreath, the veil, the white satin shoes, the white silk stockings, and the prayer book. The history of the wedding is examined in The Victorian Family.

The Mourning Dress

The mourning dress was a major feature of women’s fashion. The elaborate code of mourning dress, with its strict stages of full mourning, second mourning, and ordinary mourning, was codified in the etiquette books of the period, and the widow’s full mourning was entirely black, with a crepe veil, a crepe-trimmed bonnet, a long-sleeved black dress, black gloves, and black stockings. The mourning dress was a major industry, and the great mourning warehouses of London, Paris, and New York all supplied the elaborate fashions of the period. The mourning customs of the Victorians are examined in Death and Mourning in the Victorian Era.

The Dress Reform Movement

The dress reform movement was one of the most important reform movements of the late Victorian period. The dress reformers objected to the tight lacing of the corset, to the weight of the crinoline and the bustle, to the long trailing skirts that gathered the mud of the streets, and to the elaborate conventions of dress that they saw as restricting women’s freedom. The principal dress reformers of the period, including Amelia Bloomer, the American dress reformer, Elizabeth Smith Miller, the American dress designer, and the Rational Dress Society, founded in London in 1881, all campaigned for healthier, more comfortable, and more practical clothing. The movement was one of the foundations of the more practical dress of the early twentieth century, including the development of the brassiere, the replacement of the corset by the girdle, and the adoption of trousers for women. The history of reform is examined in Victorian Morality and Social Reform.