Family Photograph (circa 1896 or 1897)

 I found this in a secondhand ("disposals") shop in Adelaide.  It looks like a family gathering, but there is nothing to say who these people were or on what occasion the photograph was taken.

I assigned it a date of 1896 or 1897, mostly because of the size of the women's sleeves.  As you can see, they are still puffed at the top, but they are not the exaggerated "balloon" size popular in 1894 and 1895.  By 1898 sleeves were much smaller, and by 1899 the only reminder of the big sleeves was a some material gathered at the sleeve head.  Here, the width of the women's shoulders are emphasised by the use of revers, epaulettes and frills.

The woman in the centre of the photograph is wearing a broad ribbon tied in a bow at the back of her neck—a fashionable touch in the mid-1890s.

The babies in the photograph are wearing elaborate long, white gowns, while the little girl sitting at the far right is wearing a loose, smock-like dressed falling from a high yoke.  For everyday wear, children's dresses were usually protected by pinafores, but it is absent here—possibly suggesting that this photograph was taken for some kind of special event?

Both the men have nearly identical moustaches and are wearing wing collars and tie.  The man at the back is wearing a suit with a "lounge" jacket (clearly the ancestor of modern suits) while the man at the front is wearing a jacket and trousers in different materials.

Interestingly enough, no-one in this photograph is wearing a hat!

House Dresses (Peterson's Magazine, October 1862)

 By the beginning of the 20th century a 'house dress' was a simple dress in washable fabrics, designed to be worn while doing housework.  These dresses, made in silk and trimmed with velvet, are obviously very different.

Fig. 1—HOUSE DRESS OF AZULINE-BLUE SILK—Around the bottom is a fluting of black ribbon.  The body and sleeves are trimmed to correspond with the skirt.  Head-dress of black velvet and lace.

Fig. 2—HOUSE-DRESS OF GRAY SILK, SPOTTED WITH BLACK—A heavy black cording passes down the two breadths on each side, as well as around the bottom.  The sleeves are also corded with black velvet, and, like the body, are trimmed with narrow black velvet bows, with a steel buckle in the center of each bow.

On the other hand, these dresses look comparatively simple (by Victorian standards).  It's entirely possible that the readers of Peterson's Magazine could have adapted the designs in cheaper and sturdier fabrics for everyday wear.

Hilda, Rosina and Almira (Weldon's Ladies' Journal, July 1897)

 To end the month, I thought I'd take a look at some Victorian fashions as pictured in the July 1897 issue of Weldon's Ladies' Journal.  In the 1890s, Weldon's named all of its designs.  Here we have Hilda, Rosina and Almira and their costumes.

Because Weldon's Ladies' Journal sold dressmaking patterns, the descriptions accompanying these illustrations were heavy on technical details.  Suffice it to say that a lot of interlining was involved (often in horsehair cloth) to achieve the shapes of those skirts and those sleeves.

As with all good fashion magazines, Weldon's had a lot to say about current trends. 

"Correct Clothing and How it Should Be Made" (Girl's Own Paper, March 31, 1883)

Let's venture back to the early 1880s.  As you can see, the "second bustle" era is getting under way, though at this stage the Girl's Own Paper is only talking about skirts being "fuller" at the back and not about the adoption of "bustles" or "dress improvers". 

 All skirts are decidedly fuller in the back-breadths, and short skirts are worn on all occasions, save very state ones; elderly ladies should wear them touching the ground indoors, and just clearing the ground when walking...

The other thing to note about this era in fashion are the "short" skirts.  From the late 1860s all through the 1870s, fashionable skirts trailed on the ground.  Even the shortest walk out of doors must have left wearers with filthy hems! In the 1880s, skirts would either just touch the ground or just clear it.  The 1890s and 1900s would see long trained skirts return, only to disappear forever in the 1910s.

Waistcoats are used with every style of dress, both for morning and evening. 

In the young girl's walking-dress for the spring the most useful and sensible form is given that I have seen.  It is a kilted skirt, finishing in a flounce, and where the flounce begins there is a gathered puffing.  The overskirt is quite plain, and gathered like a shawl from the left side.  The Breton vest and jacket are intended for walking in, and are so simply braided and made, that it is within the power of any of our girls who have tried to make their own dresses to manage it...

The child's coat is made of a broché cloth... edged with velvet, and the hat is of felt with two silk tassels and a silk cord for its sole trimming.

"Chit-Chat On Dress" (Cassell's Family Magazine, February 1895)

I managed to pick up another bound volume of Cassell's Family Magazine the other week.  This one is from 1895, but people who have been following this blog for a while might recall I own a similar volume from 1888.  In 1888 the magazine published a monthly "Chit-chat on Dress" column describing the latest fashions from London and Paris for its female readers.  By 1895 its emphasis had changed: it was still interested in fashionable dress, but it also offered dressmaking patterns so its readers could attempt to make their own versions of the garments described.  (Given the complexity of some of the garments, I suspect many readers enlisted the help of a local dressmaker.)

The February 1895 column begins with the following pronouncement:

SELDOM has Fashion so favoured the contour of a figure that has lost its youthful slimness as at the present moment. 

But let's take a look at a couple of the featured patterns. 

Lounge-Gown for Invalid
Our design... is made in old-rose pink velveteen and Irish point lace, with over-dress of cashmere in either light maize or grey.  The whole of the upper portion, that is, the yoke and sleeves, is made separate and mounted on a short-waisted lining reaching just below the armholes, and the over-dress, cut square back and front, is slipped over the head and fastened on each shoulder beneath the ribbons.

Petit Courrier des Dames, March 15, 1856

 Here we have an engraving of a couple of fashionable, very Victorian, outfits.  The wearers are swathed in yards of expensive and  heavily ornamented fabrics, and are covered almost entirely except for their faces.  It's clear that they can neither work nor exercise in such garments.  Their main function appears to be showing of their (husbands') wealth!

Ironically, it was the Industrial Revolution that made such retrograde fashions possible.  Mechanisation meant that fabrics could be produced in more abundance than ever before, and the mass production of hoop skirts meant that they could be sold cheaply and move from the salon to the streets in record time.  Our two well-to-do ladies would have work to do to keep ahead of the hoi polloi.  At this stage that meant wearing more of the most expensive fabrics, and hiding them beneath layers of labour-intensive decoration.

Two more important technological innovations took place in 1856.  The first was the invention of the first aniline dye, and the second was the formation of the Singer Sewing Machine Combination.  Fashion would become louder, faster, and more excessive in future decades.

 

TOILETTES DE VILLE

Chapeau orné de trois plumes sur la passe.—Robe de taffetas à deux jupes ornée d'une greque formée par trois velours.  Sur le corsage, une berthe ornée comme les jupes.  Manches formées par un gros bouillonné d'étoff, terminées par un large pagode.  Cols et manches en dentelles.

Chepeau en étoff et blonde orné de deaux plumes sur la passe, et un large nœd dont les bouts retombent sur le bavolet.  — Basquine en velours garnie le haute dentelle.— Robe en taffetas à trois volants et dispositions de velours. — Col, manchettes et mouchoir, en guipure.

[TOWN COSTUMES

Hat decorated with three feathers on the side. — Taffeta dress with two skirts decorated with a Greek key pattern made in three velvets.  On the bodice, a berthe decorated like the skirts.  Sleeves formed by a large bubble of fabric, ending in a large pagoda.  Lace collars and undersleeves.

Hat in fabric and blonde decorated with two feathers and a large bow whose ends fall on the flap. — Velvet basquine trimmed with fashionable lace. — Taffeta dress with three ruffles and velvet arrangements. — Collars, cuffs and handkerchief, in guipure.]

"Charming Bonnets" (The Ladies' Friend, January 1868)

 I've decided to let fashion go to my head again this week, with a look back to a time when respectable women (and not-so respectable women) felt obliged to wear some kind of head covering on nearly every occasion.

The magazine doesn't have a description of the bonnets (or the hats) illustrated, but it does have some general remarks on fashionable headgear:

The bonnet called in Paris the chapeau-capuchon is popular for the winter season.  It encases the hair at the back instead of leaving it uncovered.  The front of the bonnet is a fanchon¹ of colored velvet; the capuchon² is of tulle, and is tied below the chignon with a satin bow which matches the fanchon..

Charming bonnets are now made entirely of velvet flowers and velvet foliage.  A bonnet composed of small vine leaves, in either green or violet velvet, is very ladylike and distinguished.

Velvet bonnets of any color to correspond with the toilet, are trimmed with a gold or silver aigrette laid upon the edge of the border.

For dinner coiffures, lace lappets are added to the flowers and fruit, but these lappets do not form a cap; sometimes they fall over the chignon, sometimes they they are crossed and fastened there by a spray of flowers...

Young ladies almost uniformly wear the flat toquet.³  This somewhat singular headgear, placed on the top of a high chignon, comes sloping over the forehead, and to it is attached a masque voilette⁴ of black lace, coming down just to the lips, and tied in lappets at the back.

This last appears to be illustrated by the figure at the bottom left of the plate, and the dinner coiffure with its lace lappets, appears to be depicted at the top right.  These black and white drawings hardly seem to do the subject justice when you consider how rich and vibrant the bonnets must have been in real life!

(1. Kerchief

2. Hood

3.  The writer probably meant a "toque"

4. Literally "mask veil")

"Dress in Season..." (Girl's Own Paper, August 1885)

 At first glance, the dresses below seem completely unsuitable for wearing on a beach—especially if the wearer is planning on walking on wet sand and exploring tide-pools.  A second look shows that the models' dresses clear the ground—just—and that their bodices and hats are comparatively un-ornamented.  This is probably as close to casual wear as it was possible to get in Victorian times.

The "Lady Dressmaker" who wrote the text accompanying these illustrations, had a lot of advice for her young lady readers who wanted to be well-dressed and up-to-date.

The French style of making dresses at present is anything but pretty; it reminds one of the farthingales of Queen Elizabeth's day, as the skirts are full and the hips are much padded out with an immense dress improver.  The bodice is quite Elizabethan, for it is long-waisted, very tight, and the front darts are placed very high up...

The high neckband is still the principal feature of the dress, and if the dressmaker be not successful in that the effect of the front of the dress at least is spoilt.  They are called straight, but they are in reality curved and cut on the cross.  This is a most useful idea in one way... for the high band is quite protection enough from sunburn and that heated air which is almost worse in its tanning effect...

Bodices are made in several different ways—waistcoats, belted bodices with pleats like the Norfolk jackets, and many bodices trimmed to represent the Zouave jacket.  Many Jersey bodices are worn both with and without waistcoat fronts, and they seem likely to be made up for the autumn with light woollens...

All the varieties of bibs, plastrons and blouse-fronts are as much used as ever just now; white ones are in fashion and are generally pinned on over the bodice front, not fastened in; when really fastened in as a portion of the dress they frequently have straps across of the bodice material buttoned over the fronts.

Stripes continue very popular, and a few dresses have been made of them, but as a rule they are reserved for trimmings and waistcoats, and are sometimes even used horizontally.  Striped and plain materials mixed need great care in the making-up as the stripes must be joined so very accurately, and where the bodice is of the stripes they must neither be too straight nor too much slanted.  I have often noticed in striped materials that they proved most unbecoming to some figures, and wondered why so.  The reason, I find, is that the material has been wrongly used in unskillful hands...

The parasols of unlined lace now seen are the most idiotic of introductions, for they do not give shade, and they do not conduce to the beauty of the tout ensemble...

Cabinet Card Photograph, (between 1871 and 1872)

This cabinet card, depicting a fashionable young lady, was produced by the firm of Vandyke & Brown—"Artistes in Photography"—of Liverpool.  From the addresses printed on the back of the photograph it was almost certainly taken in either 1871 or 1872.

 Since this is a portrait, not a fashion photograph, we only see part of the sitter's dress, and that mostly from the waist up.  It's enough to establish that she's on trend for the early 1870s.  Her stylish pagoda sleeves are lined with white frills, which probably would have been part of an undersleeve that was  detachable for laundering. 

The sitter also wears a number of large cameos in the form of bracelets and a necklace.  We can't tell if they were antiques or Victorian imitations from this photograph, but from The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine of June 1869 we learn that:

... patent convex jewellery has caused some sensation among gem collectors and lovers of cameos and of antiques... This kind of pendant is now fashionable, and is worn upon a fine Venice or English made chain.

From other sources we learn that cameos framed in jet were fashionable, and that jewellers in Germany had devised their own methods of making imitation cameos. 

Weldon's Ladies Journal, June 1897

 "In this joyous June we are to celebrate an historic event with which the whole world is ringing,"

Weldon's Ladies' Journal was referring to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.   Naturally the readers of the Journal would want a pretty outfit to wear to the celebrations, and the magazine was happy to oblige with a selection of patterns for dainty, ultra-feminine garments.  (Ironically, most of the fashions featured originated in Paris.)  Below are a couple examples:

Peterson's Magazine, May 1875

 This week I've decided to skip back a century from the 1970s to the 1870s.  What a contrast!  The fashions of 1875 are ultra-feminine, trimmed (some would say over-trimmed) with ribbons, ruffles, lace and bows.  Skirts trail on the ground—even on garments described as "walking dress"—and hair is piled high in curls and ringlets.  (Fashionable ladies who didn't have sufficient hair of their own could buy "false hair", either sourced from poorer women or from animals.)

The models in this plate are wearing bustles, but 1875 marks the point when the "first bustle" period was coming to an end.  Bodices are starting to become longer, and will soon become form-fitting "curiass" bodices.  The effect is most pronounced on the figure on the far left.

Fig. I—Walking dress of Havana brown silk
Fig. II—House dress of green silk
Fig. III—House-dress of pale stone colored mohair
Fig. IV—Walking dress
Fig. V—House-dress

GENERAL REMARKS...

MANY LATE-PARIS DRESSES are made with but little or no trimming on the skirt; a deep basque or curiass waist, much trimmed serving for the ornament.  But the ruffled and plaited over-skirts have taken such hold of the fancy of many of the fashionables, that they will be retained, though in a somewhat modified form during summer.

ALL THE SPRING DRESSES, as we have said, show a tendency to less trimming, though the inevitable over-skirt is mostly worn in some shape, but very clinging to the figure.  For the house, some dresses with long, narrow trains, have been made.  The waist has wide revers, is rather short waisted, and, in fact, looks very much like fashions that were worn just after the French Revolution, and before the empire style, with its mongrel classic fashion, was in vogue.

The Lammermoor Dress (Girl's Own Paper, January 31, 1891)

 The "Lammermoor" dress was probably named for Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor.  The jacket is styled after an early 18th century gentleman's frock coat, with wide skirts, flap pockets and deep cuffs.  The little tricorne hat perched on the model's head completes the effect.   However, there are also many details that mark the jacket as being from late nineteenth century, including the basque bodice, the leg of mutton sleeves, and the deep revers exposing the high-necked bodice beneath.

The Lammermoor coat was available as a pattern from the Girl's Own Paper:

In our illustration of the "Lammermoor Dress" we show one of the long-waisted jackets such as that unhappy bride is supposed to have been arrayed in; and for our paper pattern we have selected the same, as these long coats or jackets, with their long coat-basques, will unquestionably be worn for some time to come.  They seem becoming, too, to nearly all figures save the very short and stout, and they go well with the plain skirt which is now worn...

The paper pattern for the month, as we have said, is a "Ravenswood", or a "Lammermoor Jacket",  which will be suitable for serge or cloth, and for use as a walking or indoor jacket, to be worn on mild days with a boa or ruff.  There are twelve pieces, and great care must be taken to bone the bodice firmly, and put in the linings evenly and neatly.  The long basque will need lining with silk, or if not, with sateen; and unless in the hands of a good fitter, the home dressmaker may fail in both the ways suggested, unless very careful.

(That last is somewhat discouraging advice for home dressmakers!)

Found Online: Jay's Manual of Fashion (1858 & 1861)

 Rites of passage have always been opportunities to show off wealth and status.  In the 21st century weddings are our favourite occasions for display, but in Victorian times spending money on funerals and mourning dress were equally popular ways of showing off.  And given that in the 19th century life expectancy was lower, infant mortality higher, and families larger, there were many (too many) opportunities for wearing mourning.  

Not that people necessarily donned mourning only for their nearest and dearest, however.  There were carefully regulated graduations of mourning (first mourning, second mourning, half mourning) worn to commemorate everyone from a newly deceased husband to a distant cousin by marriage.  At one extreme, a new widow would wear the heaviest mourning with clothes covered in crape (a silk fabric treated to make it lusterless and stiff).  At the other the "mourner" would wear fashionable dress in sombre shades.

With all this, it was not surprising that an entire industry sprung up to cater for the mourning needs of the upper and aspiring middle classes.  One of the firms which rose to meet this demand was Jay's Mourning Warehouse which was established in 1841 in three large houses on London's Regent Street.

1858

Jay's introduces its 1858 catalogue, thus:

At the return of the present period, we submit to the public a series of ENGRAVINGS, embodying the Fashions of the Season.    It will be observed, that although there is considerable variety of form in the MANTLES here illustrated, they nevertheless preserve that unity for which Parisian invention is remarkable; and it is also well worthy of remark, that in Paris, at the present time, Black and White enjoy a decided favouritism.

In agreement with the requisitions of our Patrons, we have afixed Prices to the costumes, although it will be obvious that these must ultimately depend on the materials employed and the making up.  The price, therefore, may be lower, if it be so desired; or it may be higher than that which is given.  It is necessary to explain that the subject of the Illustrations are made up in various materials, suitable either for Ladies who adopt Mourning, or for those who wear Black in accordance with the taste of the day.

(The picture above depicts a mantle of cloth trimmed with velvet, a dress of poplin and a bonnet of terry and silk.)

1861

Equally fashionable are these dresses from Jay's 1861 catalogue, with only the descriptions to remind readers that they were made up in black and white (and hence suitable for mourning).  In the back of the pamphlet Jay's gives us "A Detailed List of Mourning As Usually Supplied by Messrs. Jay".  It's worthh quoting, if only in part, to see what was expected of respectable middle-class mourners in Victorian England—and their servants:

MOURNING FOR A WIDOW

PARAMATTA DRESS, deeply trimmed to the waist with crape.
RADZ-DE-MORT SILK MANTLE, trimmed with crape.
CRAPE BONNET, with deep veil.
TARLATAN CAP, COLLAR AND CUFFS, white.
DINNER DRESS of Radz-de-mort Silk, deeply trimmed with crape.
WHITE LISSE cap.

MOURNING FOR A PARENT
MORNING DRESS of Paramatta, trimmed with two deep tucks of crepe.
CRAPE COLLAR AND CUFFS, OR SLEEVES.
WALKING DRESS of Gros Royal Silk, trimmed deeply with crape.  MANTLE to correspond.
CRAPE BONNET, with Black Cap.  JET ORNAMENTS.

MOURNING FOR A BROTHER OR SISTER.
MORNING DRESS of French Twill, or Paramatta, with three or five tucks of crape.
BLACK COLLARS AND SLEEVES.
WALKING DRESS of Gros Royal or Berlin Silk, with Mantle to match.
SILK AND CRAPE BONNET.
NET VEIL, with crape hem.  JET ORNAMENTS.

SERVANTS' MOURNING
BLACK, OR GREY AND BLACK, GLACE DRESS.
GLACE MANTLE, or GRENADINE SHAWL
WHITE CRAPE OR CHIP BONNET, trimmed with Black.
WHITE NET COLLARS AND SLEEVES.

The complete catalogues are available on the Internet Archive.  You can find the 1858 catalogue here, and the 1861 catalogue here.

"Correct Clothing, and How it Should Be Made" (Girl's Own Paper, August 1883)

 It's 1883, and we're well into the "second bustle" era.  Or, as the Girl's Own Paper prefers to call them, "dress-improvers":

So far as "dress-improvers" are concerned, they are extremely moderate in size and generally consist of a few steels run into the back of the dress, which is then tied back with strings... In fact, in the present style of dress there seems nothing exaggerated or immoderate; and both faults, if any such appear, arise from the bad taste of the wearer, not the fashion.

All the newest bodices are cut with much shorter basques than they were in the spring, and all have a waistcoat as a general rule, or else a full chemisette which bags over below. The soft gathered plastrons, often added to cotton morning-gowns, are called Molière, and the first figure of our illustration, dressed in a sateen of the deepest “ crushed strawberry ” hue, wears a basque-bodice, with a Molière front. The lace at neck and sleeves matches the dress. This figure represents the probable style of making-up thicker dresses for young girls, for the autumn, with six or seven narrow flounces, and no extra trimming. Sleeves do not appear to be worn quite so much puffed into the armhole as they were, nor so high at the top of the shoulder, but it is impossible to say whether this change will last.

Ladies' Treasury (July 1877)

Let's vist the Victorians again.  On the left we have a "HOME COSTUME of ash-grey cambric or cashmere" and on the right is a "PROMENADE TOILETTE OR HOME TOILETTE" in ancient turquoise blue valencia or cambric.  The Ladies Treasury expands:

This colour is neither blue nor green, but the precise colour of old turquoise injured by damp.  The petticoat is not very long ; and one may mention here that the ladies of highest rank wear untrained dresses when walking.

To modern eyes, "not very long" looks very long indeed!  The Ladies' Treasury continues with a description of the latest fashions, not to mention fads and fancies.  Here are a choice selection:

COLOURED CAMBRICS of almost every hue, pink excepted, and cambrics with patterns on them, also foulards are universal... These are worn principally in the morning; but where etiquette or necessity does not prescribe a more elaborate toilette, they are worn all the day till the evening.

 (I wonder why pink was so definitely out of fashion in 1877?)

POLONAISES AND TUNICS—The square form of the latter is generally adopted for tunics, as it falls upon the petticoat, and is not generally looped, but cut up at the sides, as in the coloured plate of this number.  In polonaises, which are very long, there is a tendency to a great deal of trimming, as individual tastes have to be met; but only very thin figures can wear much trimming.

(An oblique hint to the magazine's readers not to overdo it?)

Ribbon bows or rather loops, are seen in all dresses.  These ribbons are literally "two-faced", the surfaces being of different colour.  They are thus exceedingly dressy-looking.  At one time these ribbons were coldly received in England, but now they reign.  Not only are bows and loops made of this kind, but also two or three colours in ribbons are used in one knot or næud of ribbon...

"What to Wear in June" (Cassell's Family Magazine, June 1888)

It has been a while since we last looked at Cassell's Family Magazine, so let's dive into its pages again and see what the well-dressed woman was wearing in June 1888.

First from Cassell's Paris correspondent:

 Parisiennes have adopted the blouse belted bodice for ordinary gowns, which is good news for the home dressmaker, as they are easily carried out, but to set well they require a foundation beneath that really fits; and any fulness should be drawn into as small a space as possible—consistent with comfort—at the waist...

... Millinery is undergoing a radical change.  The bonnet shapes are smaller, but the trimmings are placed so as to give them exceeding height...

And illustrated are two women wearing these "highly" decorated bonnets.

Our little group show's a child's frock simply made in brown and fawn striped woollen, trimmed with brown velvet... The hat has all the trimmings placed at the back.  Her mother is entirely clothed in the new blue nun's-veiling, made with the full pointed bodice, having revers and the basque outlined by an applied band... Her friend has a handsome grey cloth coat laced with gilt cord, and opening over a white cloth waistcoat... Both ladies wear bonnets which form a point above the face.

Our London correspondent informs her readers that "Braiding is universal, as well as fabrics woven to resemble braiding" and that

Smocking is finding general favour, and is not confined, as it once was, to the few who dressed in aesthetic styles.  A great many gowns have smocked yokes, and full sleeves,  smocked below the shoulders at at the wrists.

Our illustration shows a new mode of combining lace and silk.  The skirt has perpendicular folds of lace insertion laid over a colour, the back arranged with a graceful drapery of lace, the vest composed of lace laid over the same colour.  The accompanying figure is clothed in a striped woollen gown, with the fashionable cascade of pinked-out silk forming the panel.  The mantelette is made of black silk and has bell sleeves attached... The hat has a high crown and is turned up high in front, with feathers peeping over the brim...

"Seasonable Clothing and How It Should Be Made" (Girl's Own Annual March 1882)

 Time to dip into my copies of The Girl's Own Annual again.

First up is "the new petticoat".  Readers familiar with the Victorian era will recognise it as the dawn of the "second bustle era".  For the moment, back fullness is achieved by sewing flounces onto a  petticoat; as the decade progresses more substantial bustles will take its place.

The illustration below is of three up-to-the-minute fashions for March 1882, comprising of (from left to right) a walking costume, a dress made of black satin and silk trimmed with black Spanish lace, and a princesse costume with puffy sleeves and a striped scarf.  The Girl's Own Paper advised that a "drapery at the back" could be substituted for the train worn by the second figure.

This column had much to say on the topic of dress reform, which apparently had been a hot topic in the press recently.  Firstly they strike a patriotic note:

Having read thus far, I paused to think the subject over, and was not long in coming to the conclusion that, not only do English women make use of the woollen fabrics of their own country, but they have been singularly happy originating fashions where they can be used.  The waterproof first, and the ulster afterwards, bear witness to this fact, and in both of these garments the Englishwoman has set the fashion to the world.  For their manufacture no cloth but the English is good, and no makers are so highly thought of.  The same is the case with regard to tailor-made jackets and dresses, and the much maligned Englishwoman was undoubted the original inventor of the famous "Jersey", which gave employment and brought wealth to so many within the last few years.

  

However, they also advise English women to take a leaf out of the Americans' book:

As to the desire for "perpetual change," of which we all stand accused, I think in this perhaps we have something to learn from the Americans, who are singularly conservative in many ways; and when a shape or material has been found to be really good, they use it for years, without ever changing. 

For the rest, The Girl's Own Paper suggest that the dress reform measures that are really needed are the abolition of tight-lacing and the simplification of underwear.  All of which would eventuate in time, but not as the reformers imagined it! 

"New Clothing and How It Should Be Made" (Girl's Own Paper, December 31, 1881)

 The important news for the would-be fashionable young lady of 1881 is that dresses are getting shorter:

It is a great pleasure to believe that the fashion for wearing short dresses, morning, noon and night, will not alter, and long trains show no signs of coming in again, and are not worn except on very special occasions, by elderly matrons, who prefer not to cut up a very handsome dress.  Short skirts are wider and though equally tight in the front, the advent of the tournure has made the sides and back much wider and more graceful for slight figures, because not so tight and clinging.

Enter "the second bustle"!  It's interesting in this context that "short" means "without a train", though skirts still trail on the floor.

The latest winter furs are discussed:

The lighter-coloured furs seem to have slipped out of fashion this winter, and the taste leans to dark browns and black.  The principal furs are—stone marten, seal, musquash, skunk, coney, opossum, black fox, and what is called Russian cat.  These are all moderate in price, and our illustration, "On the Ice", will show how they are worn.  The first figure wears a brown poke bonnet, a mantle of plush, trimmed with black fox, brown cashmere dress, brown velvet and fur muff, and a bunch of yellow crocuses.  The central figure wears a skating costume of plum-coloured, with a fur or feather border.  A wide lining of velvet on the tunic, which is caught up on one side.

"Recent Ideas on Dress Reform" (Girl's Own Paper, November 1 1890)

 As socially conscious Victorian women set out to reform the world, some began see a need to reform their own clothes as well.  The "Dress Reform" movement became particularly vigorous in the English speaking world, with middle-class reformers on both sides of the Atlantic and through the British empire trying to find ways to make Victorian fashions healthier, easier to move in and more comfortable.

Alas for all their efforts, most Victorian women stuck to their unhealthy, restrictive and uncomfortable garments, preferring discomfort to attracting ridicule!  As it happened, there was some movement towards more practical and comfortable dress in the forms of tea gowns for leisure and skirt suits for the "New" working woman.  However it took a World War and some quite drastic social changes before the ideas of the dress reformers became fashionable.

Annie Jeuness Miller was an American editor and women's dress reformer. She created her own system of dress, which the Girl's Own Paper reported on in November 1890.

 MRS. JEUNESS MILLER is as equally determined to abolish the corset as our own dress reformers, though she begins more circumspectly.  But I find she has also been obliged to give way to those who desire a bodice of some kind, and has invented a very pretty-looking model bodice with a neck-yoke, the bodice buttoning in front and lacing at the back.  The need felt for a bodice is probably owing to the lack of warmth realised when the stays are left off, and also to the want of support of some kind. 

Our illustrations show the whole of the garments which Mrs Miller suggests.  The first is the ordinary woven "combination", as we call it, which may be of silk, thread, cotton or wool, or, what is nearly as warm, of stout spun-silk.  This garment we can now obtain of every good draper in England; and for India, of gauze, silk, or wool.  The next garment in this system is called the "chemisette" and this is an improved cut of "combinations" or union dress, or the union of the drawers and chemise of old days.  This garment has a yoke at the neck, and fits the figure closely.  The next article of clothing is an improved version of the "divided skirt," which was invented by Lady Harberton, but has a better-fitting yoke, and is, in general aspects, more practical.  These three last-named garments are made in all materials—cotton, flannel, mohair or alpaca, cashmere and silk.  I find that Mrs Miller has much adopted the natural-coloured tussore as a material, and certainly nothing could prove a wiser selection, or wear better.  "It washes like a rag," as the vulgar saying is...

...The chief thing to be noticed is the admirable idea of a dress-form, that is to say, a dress foundation—one on which every dress can be made, the trimmings being made to suit the prevailing styles, so that each may have her own taste unshackled, and wear what suits her best.  This dress-form is accurately fitted, is well boned, and is made of the material of each dress.  Our illustration of it shows exactly what it looks like, and how, by a clever alteration of Mrs Miller's own, the chief defect, so often found in the "Princess dress," is got over—i.e. the cutting across the front, so as to permit the skirt and the bodice being fitted accurately on the wearer...

The dresses we show in our illustrations were all made in this manner; and it can be gathered from them how easy it is to make any style of drapery or ornamentation to suit the foundation.  The greatest freedom of movement is gained by the dress being made in one piece, and for the home dressmaker this seems an immense advance.

Mrs. Jeuness Miller considers that one of the great essentials for a perfectly health-promoting dress is to get rid of bands at the waist, and though the waist is larger, it is more natural in form, more healthy, and more comfortable.  All the garments are made in one piece, and the weight and warmth are equally distributed.  The ordinary dress is always worn, and there is no desire to have anything conspicuous or ugly; nothing revolutionary is intended, and there is nothing to attract attention in the reformed costume but its superior prettiness and grace.

"Correct Clothing and How It Should Be Made" (Girl's Own Paper, February 24th 1883)

 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!

And now some insight into the fashions of February 1883:

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!