Victorian fashion

Victorian fashion comprises clothing and dress customs associated with Britain and its cultural sphere during Queen Victoria’s reign, from 1837 to 1901. It changed markedly across the period and varied by class, occasion, and gender.

Crinoline: A stiff framework worn beneath a skirt to hold it in a wide shape. Its expanding hoops transformed the outline of women’s skirts in the mid-century.
Victorian workwear: Practical clothing worn by workers in Britain during the Victorian era. It shows how labor and income shaped dress beyond fashionable elite wardrobes.
Charles Frederick Worth: An English-born fashion designer who established a couture house in Paris in the nineteenth century. Worth helped shape elite fashion through dressmaking, seasonal collections, and influential clients.
Rational dress movement: A nineteenth-century movement advocating practical clothing, especially for women, instead of restrictive fashions. Its campaign directly opposed garments and silhouettes associated with fashionable women’s dress.
Bustle: A padded support or framework worn at the back to shape a skirt. It defined the pronounced rear silhouette fashionable in later decades.
Victorian wedding dress: A bride’s wedding attire in the Victorian era, shaped by changing customs and fashion. Queen Victoria’s white wedding dress helped popularize white bridal attire.
Queen Victoria: Queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901. Her clothing and public image gave the era its name and influenced dress customs.
Aesthetic dress: Clothing associated with the nineteenth-century Aesthetic movement, favoring artistic design over conventional fashion. Its loose forms and historical references challenged mainstream Victorian styles.
Corset: A close-fitting garment stiffened with boning and lacing to shape and support the torso. Corsetry helped create the period’s fashionable waistlines and bodices.
Victorian mourning: Social customs and practices for expressing bereavement in Victorian Britain. Mourning could determine clothing choices for extended periods and across social settings.

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