"In the Rose Garden" (Peterson's Magazine, 1875)

It's Winter here in the Southern Hemisphere, and the days are short and the nights are cold.  So, in order to remind myself that the days will be long and warm again, I present the colour fashion plate from the June 1875 issue of Peterson's Magazine (captioned "In the Rose Garden").

To tell the truth, none of these clothes look suitable for a garden—at least not if you wish to stray off the neatly graveled paths.  They certainly look unsuitable for gardening!  However they are just right for posing daintily in a garden.  Women's clothes in the 1870s were liberally covered in feathers, flowers and flounces, and the wearers were further encumbered by bustles, corsets and trains.  The fashions of the decade reached a peak of fussy Victorian femininity that has never been seen since.  

"A Folder of Fashion Finds" (Woman and Beauty, October 1948)

The October 1948 issue of Woman and Beauty had a little fold-out section containing two suggested wardrobes.   (Drawings were by Francis Marshall, photograph by John French.)

First, a hat (to be worn with both outfits).

Second, coats to go over the outfits.  On the left, a "big topper" to be worn by women who like colour and mostly wear suits.  On the right, a belted coat for women who like wearing black dresses.

 

Next—on the left, a suit by Harella to be worn under the big topper.  On the right, a dress by Frederick Starke to be worn underneath the belted coat.

Next, a change of clothing.  On the left, a "jumper suit" made out of grey jersey to go under the red topper.  On the right, a shirtwaist "that is always perfect for the office" to go under the belted coat.

And lastly a raincoat and fur-lined boots for those cold wet days!

National Bellas Hess catalogue, Spring and Summer 1970

The cover blurb invites you to "swing into the 70's", but the model, in her brightly coloured mini-dress, looks as if she belongs in the 60's.  What's more, she is wearing it with white, wrist-length gloves—accessories that really didn't belong into anybody's wardrobe by 1970.

However, it's only fitting that she's entering the new decade in an outfit made entirely of polyester crepe!

Dressing the Elite by Susan Vincent

This is a study of dress in the context of a society that is very alien to us.  Early Modern England was extremely hierarchical and status conscious, with rank and wealth being seen as a divinely ordered reflection of the "Great Chain of Being".   As a consequence, clothing was rigidly segmented on the basis of class, age and sex, with the differences being enforced by law if necessary.

Of course all these things intersected in interesting (and to modern eyes unexpected) ways.  For example infants and small children had their own special clothing (seen as appropriate for their age) but tiny boys and girls were dressed identically to each other until around the age of seven.  Gender roles were things to be grown into—unlike today where even newborns are dressed in colour-coded onesies. 

Where adults were concerned the clothes of each sex were supposed to be quite distinct, with swords and breeches reserved for men, and skirts and corsets for women.  This didn't prevent people from crossing the boundaries, however.  Moralists were particularly incensed by women borrowing items (such as hats and doublets) from the male wardrobe.  Much rarer was full-on cross-dressing, which was usually done for specific purposes.  People caught wearing the clothes of the opposite sex could expect to be punished, but—need I add?—the punishments were usually harsher for lower-class women than upper-class men.

The hierarchies of class were were laid down by England's sumptuary laws, designed to prevent people from wearing the clothes of their "betters".  Rank was the concern here, not wealth. Unsurprisingly the laws were not a success and the lawmakers struggled to keep up with both fashion and society in each succeeding piece of legislation.  From the modern point of view the interesting thing is that fashion was considered to be a largely male interest, so women hardly figured in the sumptuary laws until fairly late in the struggle.

Vincent, Susan
Dressing the elite: clothes in early modern England
185973751X
Oxford: Berg, 2003