Hey there, the first video I made in this
series was based on 1860’s fashion. This one is, I think, a more popular historybounding
decade, and one in which I definitely want to make at least a few pieces for myself. So while the last video was just something
that I made on a whim, this one I’ve put more thought into in order for it to be as
useful to myself and others as possible. So, the goal: to create a small capsule wardrobe
based on 1890’s fashion, let’s say 12 pieces. I am designing it to my own aesthetics, obviously,
but I want to make it something of a template, so that it would be easy for another person
to swap out specific colors and styles to better adapt the capsule to their tastes. By simulating my ideas, I want to identify
important details and trends and key pieces that can help pull off the look, but which
are versatile and wearable in a modern wardrobe. I’m basing most of the designs off of patterns
in the Keystone Guide, which is much more than a standard pattern book. Instead it is more of a guide to pattern creation,
helping you to understand how almost any Victorian Ladies’ pattern can be drafted from a single
base bodice pattern, how the bodice front and neckline can be altered, sleeve volume
fine-tuned to your preferences, and collar types interchanged. 10 out of 10, do recommend. For the details of the designs, I’m looking
for further inspiration from fashion plates, extant pieces, photos, and a bit of 1940’s-ish
vintage. I quite like the later half of the 1890’s,
as the styles became, for a short time, simple and elegant, with a bit of a masculine edge,
focusing more on beautiful fit and construction, and less on opulence and lace, ideal for historybounding. The first piece is one I actually have fabric
for, and one that has been on my list the longest. It is a simple walking skirt, shortened to
tea-length. Victorian waistbands usually didn’t show,
so they were simple. However, since the skirt is quite plain, and
I would likely tuck a shirt in, I want there to be some interesting element to the waistband. I’m going to lift the style of this vintage
skirt’s waistband, adding a peak, and a bit of a contrast. The fabric I have for this skirt is a heavy,
dark brown boiled wool, with some lovely color variation when you look closely. So this will be a very practical and warm
winter piece. I would like to find a darker brown velvet
for a contrast piece, and I’d like to bind the hem of the skirt in either the same velvet,
or a wool braid. This was historically quite common, as the
skirts swept the ground and hems wore out quickly. With a modern, shortened skirt, this will
not be as big of a problem, but still, hems remain the first to go, and it is a lovely
nod to the sort of utilitarian details I love most about historical clothing. The second piece will be made from the same
fabric, and it is a jacket based on the simple, tightly-fitted jackets worn in riding habits. There is something I really love about those
jackets, though I can’t put my finger on it. I love the simplicity, the high collars, the
subtle soutache detailing you sometimes see. I would modernize the fit of it, making the
proportions more to a modern standard, but I would still make it very structured and
tight. I love the idea in historybounding of using
historical jacket styles and making them to wear indoors, akin to how a modern blazer
is worn today. I like this idea because dressing nice when
it’s cold out is the biggest challenge I’ve had sewing my own clothing. And I can’t knit, and I don’t think knitting
is on the charts for me to learn. Ever. So hello historical jacketing. The third piece is the shoes. Yes, let’s go ahead and get the shoes out of
the way. I don’t know how to make shoes. But the tan and brown Manhattan boots by American
Duchess are incontrovertibly Victorian, and I think they would go beautifully with my
earth-tone color scheme. Though if you are more of a fan of charcoal
palettes, they also make the same boots in black and gray, or several other Victorian
styles in just black. For the fourth piece I want to do a dress. Dresses aren’t the most versatile choice
in capsule wardrobes, but I think I can make an exception for this beauty. This is my all-time favorite Victorian walking
dress, and there’s very little I would change to modernize it. Shorten the skirt, for sure. I would probably get rid of the epaulettes
and shoulder detailing, cut off the sleeves, and bring the detailing at the wrist up to
the cuff of the new, short sleeve. I would also loose the high collar and have
the neckline end at the last strip of braid. The original dress, in the museum description,
was made of a black, white, and lilac tartan, with white lace over a yellow backing. This is not great for my color palette, so
I would probably design a fabric and print it with Spoonflower or MyFabricDesign. I would make the tartan brown and cream, with
rose instead of lilac for color. Probably ivory lace with an ivory backing,
and a brown braid for all of the lattice-work. For the waistband, I could use a remnant of
the skirt and jacket set from before. For the fifth piece let’s do another skirt. I want to make a lighter, more summery skirt,
maybe from a silk in a deeper rose color, complimenting the rose used in the dress tartan. I am mostly following soutaching design of
this extant piece, but below the cording I want to add a section of crisp pleats like
you sometimes see in other skirts. Since this skirt has plenty of interesting
detailing, I think that the waistband can be narrow and simple. And coordinating with this skirt, for the
sixth piece, a matching jacket based almost directly off the jacket that goes with that
original soutached skirt. I like the idea of having a jacket that is
open to show more of the blouse underneath, but I don’t want any type of bolero or open
jacket, or a jacket that originally would have secured to another piece beneath. For modern practicality, I think it needs to have
at least one point of closure. So this jacket is a perfect base, though I
think I will change the collar a bit and narrow it in. The first jacket had very slim fitted sleeves,
so I’ll give this one a bit more poof at the top. And I’ll add a bit of soutaching at the
front of the jacket and the wrists of the sleeves, in a style and cord to match the
skirt. Then I made an overcoat, though you can ignore
it because I found it to be redundant, too outdoorsy, and not distinctively 1890’s
enough, so I discarded it. For the seventh piece, another skirt. This one of a medium weight and in tan. It is meant to be the most versatile piece,
light enough for summer, but warm enough for the winter. So a lightweight wool might work. And in tan, the most neutral color. I’ll keep the decoration simple, to maintain
the neutrality. Make the waistband in a contrasting fabric,
and add a band of contrast trim near the hem. For the eighth piece, pants! Because it is simply mandatory to celebrate
the some of the first culturally normalized women’s pants in European fashion history. Not the men’s style trousers or breeches
women previously wore beneath their skirts while riding, nor the first Suffragette bloomers,
but real pants designed for women. Pants intended to reflect the new measures
of freedom and activity in their lives, but still patterned elegantly and accommodative
towards the current fashionable silhouette. I’m illustrating these wide-leg pants based
off a bicycling outfit, and I would make them from a medium weight fabric, maybe a twill. Something sturdy, but still comfortable and
breathable. And I like a lighter, caramelly brown for
the pants, still quite versatile but not matchy-matchy with any other piece. I would probably make them a little longer
than the skirts, but not full length, about the length of capri pants today. And I don’t know if the placket of buttons
down each leg serves an actual function, but it’s a cool detail and I’d be remiss to
leave it out. For the ninth piece, a waistcoat. I don’t love waistcoats myself, but I can
see the practicality of them for an extra layer of warmth in the winter, especially
when wearing an open jacket like the red one. And also I just don’t feel like an 1890’s
capsule would be complete without a waistcoat. I think I’ll make it double-breasted, since
I haven’t used that variation yet. And this one will actually get a pattern. I like the idea of using a striped silk at
an angle, something that features the browns, but also the rose shades and maybe another
complimentary color pop. I’m just going to use a generic striped
pattern for now, since I don’t know what kind of silk I’d be able to find if I was
actually going to make this, so consider this pattern a placeholder to see how well the
piece can match with others. For the tenth piece, a shirtwaist. I would probably make this out of a lightweight
ivory cotton, and I would add the waistband, which seems a wonderfully practical way to
keep shirts neat and tucked in. For this blouse I’ll leave the sleeves long
and full, though not as full as the original sleeves would be. I’ll do crisp box pleating down the front,
and I like the idea of using this Keystone collar, which is praised for its’ practicality,
able to be styled both standing up or folded down. Because of the collar style, I would probably
have this shirtwaist button up the front, but I’d like to try and hide the buttons
beneath the box pleating, if possible. For the eleventh piece, another shirtwaist,
this one more summery. I would make it out of a lighter white cotton,
maybe cotton lawn. It would have short, but still poofy sleeves. I’d like to use a yoke, since the other
shirtwaist did not have one. Instead of the box pleats, I’d just use
tiny gathers, more loose and informal, summery. I like the tall Victorian collars, and since
this shirtwaist is more feminine all around, I’ll add narrow lace around the tops and
bottoms of the collar, the sleeves, and the yoke. Might as well make the yoke from lace, too. And for the final, twelfth piece, an accessory. They say it is the accessories that sell an
era. The Victorians certainly had a wealth of accessories
to choose from. Hats, gloves, canes, parasols and handbags,
brooches, jewelry, ties and bowties, all manner of capes, caplets, shawls, and wraps. I’m sure there are others I don’t even
know existed. For this capsule wardrobe though, the one
accessory I find most crucial to sell the Victorian look, is a hat. There are all manner of hats I could make,
but I think my favorite is the small, round, fairly flat type. It could be straw, or covered in silk, I think
I would decide that when I got to it. It would be decorated with ribbons, flowers,
and hopefully a little fake bird, using shades of rose, red, and green to coordinate with
the few colorful pieces in this capsule. It’s looking pretty good so far, but now
that I can see all twelve pieces together, I think I can spot where I want to make some
revisions. The tan skirt strikes me as too plain, and
the brown jacket is too covering, especially when compared to the open red jacket which
shows the blouse underneath so wonderfully. I think, for the skirt I’ll just get rid
of the contrast band at the bottom, and instead I’ll do a simple bit of soutaching, like
the fashion plate I was originally basing it off of. For the jacket, I want to try combining elements
of the brown jacket with the discarded tan jacket. Bam. Okay, this is much better. It has an open collar, and the upper collar
could be made with the same contrast velvet as the brown skirt. And if I patterned the collar right, maybe
I could make it changeable, with the collar able to be folded down like it is now, or
folded up and buttoned to the top, like the original brown jacket. I’m not 100% sure I like the flared skirt
around the jacket, but maybe if and when I get around to making it I’ll alter the design
then. So, let’s see how we did. I’m thinking this looks really good. Of course, if I started making these pieces
one by one, they would evolve as I went, the patterns might change and details would be added, and
the way textures of real fabrics played with each other in real life would look very different
from the flat colored illustrations, but for a simulation, I like it. The hard thing about most Victorian decades,
is that the clothing we see in collections or fashion plates mostly consists of ensembles,
dresses, and complete looks with matching jackets and skirts. These are not great for versatility, so while
I allowed the use of my favorite walking dress, I did have to ignore a lot of iconic 1890’s
styles, simply because they were too limiting to use. I do like the decision to make most things
neutral, only a couple colored, and the only pieces to utilize patterns are the dress and
the waistcoat, which is the only pairing that the waistcoat would not be useful for anyways. If I was going to add one more patterned piece,
it would probably be a skirt in the same fabric as the waistcoat. Okay I really, really love this dress. It almost looks a little 1940’s. And it looks great with both of the jackets. Okay, yeah, I’m making this. It’s only a matter of time. And the pleated, long sleeved shirtwaist. Looking good so far. During the summer the sleeves could be rolled
up. Less historically accurate, but more use out
of the piece. The collar can be rolled down or turned up,
depending on the look you want to go for and the pieces you are layering with it. See look: up down up down up. This shirtwaist strikes me as very “I’d
like 50 lb. of corn, 10 lb. of salt pork, and can you add it to my account, please?” Shirtwaists are only slightly different from
modern blouses in the details, so it would be a subtle thing to add to your wardrobe. And the second shirtwaist. Ooo I like this. Very lovely and summery. This shirtwaist is ideal for running up a
windswept hillside towards the sea during early spring, heart thumping as you clutch
your hat and an unopened letter. The waistcoat is nice. Though, again, I’ve never liked vests much,
and I’m not sure if it’s something I would actually wear, other than potentially for
warmth during the cold months. But it does look good, very early career woman. With the short sleeves it still works, though
it does look a bit off. Maybe that’s because it would primarily
be worn for warmth, so we’re not used to seeing it used as a fashion statement with
short sleeves. Ok let’s add a jacket. Ok, ok. I’m still not sure about the bottom flare
of the jacket, but I like the front and the neckline, I like how simple it is. The colors work well together. It’s very businesslike, very “off to get
things done”. And the lacy shirtwaist just adds a whole
layer of dimension and texture. I think having a lace yoke makes the standing
collar more prominent, and I like it. Now the red jacked is beautiful, and it pairs
so well with everything. That red jacket/brown skirt combination is
a bit familiar somehow… I’ve tried to keep the pieces simple and
versatile and a bit middle class, but the red jacket just classes everything else up. And with the lacy shirtwaist. Man this lacy shirtwaist just keeps getting
better the more it’s paired. It just adds so much interest to the whole
outfit. And adding the waistcoat beneath the brown
jacket for warmth, it mostly gets hidden, but it adds a very subtle pop of color, which
looks nice with the folded collar, but really draws attention to the lacy collar. And adding the waistcoat beneath the red jacket,
it is a lot more visible, going from a subtle detail to a prominent statement piece, slightly
overshadowing the detail added by the lace collar. I think usually when people talk about capsule
wardrobes, it is directed towards having too much clothing and deciding what to get rid
of, but the concept of a capsule wardrobe can be incredibly useful if you are beginning
to make your own daily clothing, because it can help you plan out and sew versatile, practical
pieces, fleshing out and transitioning your self-sewn wardrobe much quicker than by aimlessly
fumbling. Trust me, I’ve got experience with that. So there you have it, my thoughts on 1890’s
historybounding and a paper doll simulation of how different types of pieces might interact
and affect the look you are after. If you've been looking for inspiration or direction,
I hope this video inspired and directed you. If you were looking for simple entertainment,
I hope you were entertained. And if you just randomly clicked the video and have
no idea what I was talking about, welcome to historybounding. Historybounding is the art of adapting historical style into your modern wardrobe, and it is so much fun. For myself, I am actively planning to make
at least a few of these pieces, maybe a few more now that I’ve seen their potential. So if you want to stay tuned for the progress
I make, go ahead and subscribe :)
You have absolutely got me to think about my imminent capsule closet in a different way! Thank you!
this is super pretty and very well designed! also very helpful
There's something sooo satisfying about how well coordinated the color palette is.