Hi! So today I'll be showing you how to
tell different 19th century fashion decades apart. We're not going to be
talking about what affected fashion but rather what the clothes looked like. Everything in fashion happens gradually so to understand what was going on at
the beginning of a new century let's move back a bit to 1790s. 1790s were a
transition period. A new slender silhouette came to fashion but it took a
while till the ladies got rid of their bum rolls, wigs and wide petticoats. That's why in some Jane Austen movie
adaptations you can still see the older generation wearing older 18th century
gowns, while the youngsters are dressed in the empire fashion. So in 1790s the waist gradually went higher, the skirts got narrower, the hair smaller (though
ladies still used to powder them), turbans and ostrich feathers were the thing.
Sleeves were usually elbow length. What's typical for the era is that the skirts
were gathered at the back of the dress but also in front. That's why when we
look at some of the 1790s fashion plates nowadays all of the ladies look kind of
pregnant. Also if you look at the back of a late 1790s or early 1800s dress you
can notice a very peculiar cut. The sleeves heads were pushed back towards the shoulder blades and the back of the dress was very short with the shortest
point being in the center. Women would even pad this bit of the skirt to make it look fuller. Despite a circulating stereotype this
new silhouette did not make women toss corsets away. Some brave French
fashionistas were not wearing them that's true but corsets never
completely disappeared Mainly because the new silhouette required your bust to basically touch your chin. And what better way to achieve that than
some good old push-up bra? I mean, stays. The beginning of the 1800s saw the death of the heavily powdered hair and classicism inspired hair-dos
became all the rage. Women would style their coiffures after antique sculptures and paintings. The dresses also changed. Everyone got crazy about light delicate fabrics. The skirts' trains were getting longer and longer, the busts were higher than ever and the bodices were really short. By 1810 the super long trains were
no longer in fashion (no longer, get it? haha) the skirts got wider and they became
more trapezoidal in shape. Rich Indian silks became fashionable. The waist began gradually dropping around 1815. Also the later in the decade the more
decoration on the everyday outfits. Grecian and Roman Hairstyles were
adapted into a very popular look which included curls on both sides of the face
together with an intricate updo. 1820s were a transitional period from a
classical empire silhouette to the crazily over-the-top 1830s. So the skirts got wider and wider shorter and shorter the waist drop lower and lower the
sleeves grew bigger and bigger and more and more decorations started to appear
on the dresses. The hem of the skirts was padded to help achieve the trapezoidal
shape. In 1830s everything kept growing until the middle of the decade and let
me tell you got really intense. Women would wear multiple petticoats
some of them stiffened by cording or horsehair to hold the volume of the
skirts that were now shorter than ever. They even wore special sleeve supports
to make the sleeves bigger. The waist was pretty low at this point but still a bit
higher than ladies' natural waists. Thanks to Queen Victoria who was
coronated in 1837 modesty and minimalism came to fashion. From 1836 everything
started decreasing, the sleeve puffs started moving downwards, the decoration started disappearing, the skirts were back to floor length, the updos got flat and in the
late 1830s the waist finally reached its natural position. 1840s were a decade of earthy colors, fitted pointy bodices, and fitted sleeves, tight collars usually
separately attached, and small geometrical patterns. Basically everything got tighter and the only thing that kept growing was the width of
women's skirts that required more and more support. Popular hair style was a low
bun and the middle parting and that with some minor modifications was a hot look
up until the late 1860s. In the 1850s the problem of growing skirts became so big (big, got it?) that it was necessary to develop a special construction to help
them stay in shape and not floppy. That construction was called crinoline and it was patented in 1856. Now note that the crinoline did not
exist until then so if you hear about 18th century crinolines,
that's absolute nonsense. 18th century ladies were hoop skirts or panniers. 1850s skirts were often ruffled which is an easy way to tell them apart from 1840s
skirts. Same goes for the sleeves which in 1850s were wide and called pagoda
sleeves. Women would often wear fake white sleeves underneath so they could
peek from the pagoda sleeves. The waist dropped a little bit below the actual
waist level and got longer in the front Plaid dresses were all the rage as well
as floral motives. In 1860s the shape of the whole silhouette started changing. After the waist reached its lowest point in 1850s it started going a little bit
above the natural waist level in the 1860s. Buttoned bodices became fashionable,
the ruffled plaid skirts were gone and instead plain solid colors were in
fashion, with geometrical trimmings such as the Greek key decorating the hems. The shape of the skirt changed slightly and so did the shape of the crinoline
underneath, accentuating the back. Apart from being gathered or pleated at
the waist some skirts were also made of panels. From about 1867 the transitional
period started. The waist would start traveling even higher
but the skirt this time instead of expanding on decreasing would start
getting more volume at the back It would also gradually become more and
more decorated. The crinolines gradually morphed into crinolettes and then
around the beginning of 1870s into bustles. That's how we enter the bustle
era. 1870s where a decade I would compare to 1830s - big hair, a lot of decorations,
frills, flowers, laces, pinks and pastels. A huge inspiration for 1870s was 18th
century fashion and you can kind of tell. Even the hairstyles were sort of
Marie Antoinette inspired. Some people would literally take old family dresses from let's say 1780s and redo them into fashionable creations. Dresses were also influenced by Renaissance and medieval fashions. About the butts - the 1870s bustle was large and the skirt was in trapezoidal shape. To accentuate the
silhouette even more women would wear two skirts one of them was an underskirt
which went - surprise surprise - under, and the other went on top and was called the
over skirt. Over skirts were draped to make the butts look even bigger. And then, suddenly the butts disappeared! Around 1878 women dropped the big bustles and chose to wear small bum pads instead. The skirts got really narrow but instead of
the fullness the designers came up with length and added long trains. This look called the natural form era lasted for only about four years because around
1882, the bustles were back on track! Remember what happened after 1830s? Minimalism, geometry, earthy tones strictness - well this sort of happened
after the 1870s too. 1880s are known as the second bustle era
and though at first glance might look similar to 1870s there are some
significant differences that make it easier to tell them apart. Firstly the skirts are not the trapezoidal shape anymore. They were just a little bit wider than the hips. Secondly the shape of the corset changed slightly. Spoon busked corsets came into fashion giving the illusion of a full belly and I swear
I'm not making it up. And from a more harsh geometrical 1870s shape, a curvy wavy 1880s shape evolved. Thirdly, the bustles shape or rather angle
changed. Instead of gradually going down the bustles formed a sort of shelf on
the ladies bottoms. Fourthly (if that's even a word) ladies' hairstyles changed. Women would also start cutting their forehead hair and setting it into frizzy
bangs. Not the most flattering look but if you have bangs this is one of the
rare 19th century fashion history moments when this look is historically
accurate. So as you probably noticed, changes in fashion history usually start with something gradually growing or decreasing or getting longer or shorter
so because skirts kept changing all the time at the beginning of the 1890s
people were like "Hey what about the sleeves" Sleeves it is then - from 1890 to
around 1895 the sleeves were getting bigger and bigger and bigger and to
balance the huge sleeves the skirts also had to get wider if you wonder what
happened to the bustle well it kind of disappeared. The only reminder that the
bustle was ever there was a peculiar pleat at the back of the skirts in early
1890s but those pleats disappeared after a while too. 1890s where a time where art
noveau was kind of huge so you can see that in the clothes and the way they're cut
and made. Floral and geometrical designs cover the dresses, jackets and coats from
the era. What I especially love about the 1890s is the collars so especially the
coats and capes from the era jackets and generally speaking outerwear often had
very high spiky collars you know they're Maleficent kind of collar The skirts changed once again from trapezoidal wide skirts in the middle of 1890s to
tulip-shaped narrower skirts by the end of the decade. Later in the decade women also
started getting rid of the weird frizzy bangs and a puffy more art nouveau
appropriate style was introduced. 1890s were the time of a big discussion around tight lacing, corsets and how they affect women's health. Tight lacing wasn't very popular before but by the end of 19th century more and more fashionistas
desired small waists. So the solution to the problem was an invention of an s-bend
corset or a health corset in 1900. It completely changed women's silhouette
but that's kind of a whole another story so maybe I'll tell you about that when
we're discussing 20th century I hope now I hope now when you hear about something being "Victorian- or "19th century style" you know there is no such thing because 19th
century was such a huge piece of fashion history with countless silhouettes cuts
and styles. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this messy explanation obviously, I
missed a lot of things and some things I listed as a typical thing for
one decade we're actually also popular in other decades but just to give you a
general idea. Ok, thanks for listening and see you next time hopefully.
Never apologize for loving meme mom!
I love Karolina’s videos!
I wish she would let us look at the drawings for a second before erasing them. I don't have enough time to grasp what I'm looking at before she wipes it out.
Besides the regency being Jane Austen’s time period- I firmly believe that the fashion and decorative styles of that time period are a main reason most HRs are set then. I think it is an elegant period that moderns tastes can appreciate- slim lines and clean cuts. This is true for the furniture of the period too. It was all emulating the Roman styles that were being excavated from places like Pompeii and Herculaneum.
The 1830s giant sleeves are so bad. I had a museum friend who had to wear an 1830s dress for her job and it was hideous. She was beautiful and it made her look terrible. I love The Wallflowers series but every time I remember they would be wearing 1830s fashion I cringe. Thankfully men’s fashion was ok then.