Real Life™ has got in the way of me posting to this blog for a while. Happily, Real Life has also provided some blog fodder, in the form of two volumes of The Girl's Own Annual from 1882 and 1883.
It's interesting that this very Victorian column should be called "Correct Clothing", not "attractive" clothing or "stylish" clothing. However, when you dig down into the piece you discover that "Correct" in this context means becoming and currently fashionable. I'm going to quote at length from it. Some of the advice is still applicable, though modern writers would phrase things differently!
"Dress," says a famous London doctor in a recent lecture, "should be to the body what language is to the mind."
"And how," at once some of my readers, "is this knowledge to be gained?" To this I answer, by the study of two branches of art—i.e. form and colour; form as regards question of height and breadth in the people you see around you, and colour in reference to complexion and size.
As regards the former, there are a few rules by which you may also be guided. Thus, the very stout should avoid perpendicular stripes in dress, as although they give height, they increase fulness; and horizontal should be avoided by short people and very stout ones. Large patterns should be avoided by short people, and left to the tall ones, who can manage to carry them off gracefully. The former should also beware of wearing double skirts or tunics short and bunchy in shape, and also of lines made across the figure by flounces or trimmings which cut it in the centre. The short and stout must also dress the hair high—at least, as much so as the fashion of the time will allow.
A dress cut high behind, or high on the shoulders, gives the benefit of the whole height of the figure, and a horizontal line of trimming across the neck, bust or shoulders decreases the apparent height of the wearer. Full and puffed sleeves are an improvement to every figure, except to a very stout one, to which the plain coat-sleeve, not cut too tight, is more suitable. Very light colours should be avoided by those who are stout, as their size is very much increased, whereas by wearing black materials it is diminished. Any attempt to increase the height by a very high or large head-dress should be avoided as such an enlargement of the head dwarfs the figure.
A person with a prominent or large nose should beware of wearing a small bonnet, and no one over thirty years of age can afford to have a shadow thrown on her face from too large a hat or bonnet, as that increases the apparent age.
In making dresses for young girls when they happen to be very thin, great attention should be paid to the fact, and every endeavor made to hide deficiencies by means of extra fulness of trimming in the bodice and skirt. They are often made fun of for this as they are for a little extra stoutness, which is very cruel and foolish, especially if it be family fun. I have known a young girls mind and character permanently warped by such "chaff", and when the nerves are delicate and the temper consequently irritable it should be immediately checked by the heads of the family.
Good advice!
Braiding continues to be the great feature of walking and thick dress of all kinds, and nothing could be more useful, as well as pretty, than the blue serges with black braidings, which some of the shops have brought out. When woollen skirts are box-pleated, the braiding is placed on either the face or the pleat or else in the spaces. Another method of braiding is shown on the extreme right-hand figure of our month's illustration, where it appears on the plain underskirt and on the bodice, but not on the overskirt, which is very fully draped, but has no ornament. The centre figure wears a skirt with two flounces, and a scarf overskirt, the front being a braided piece with a pointed end hanging down each side. The bodice is braided down each seam à la militaire. Braided dresses will, I think, preserve preserve their popularity through the coming spring and summer; so any of our readers who like the work may safely begin to prepare a dress for themselves...
All kinds of lace collars are much worn, and are copied from the numberless portraits of ancient days. Rubens and Holbein are especially rich in their examples of them...
Very fanciful broaches are still the rage, and the most extraordinary combination of objects, the most unsuitable, apparently, to the position in which they are placed, are often to be seen. Ducks, parrots, spiders, crocodiles, tambourines, "Punch and Judy", bull-dogs and a host of other things are now brought over from Paris in that light imitation jewellery that suits ephemeral fancies like these.
Collectors of costume jewellery might like to take note!
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