1870s in fashion
Encyclopedia
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
is characterized by a gradual return to a narrow silhouette after the full-skirted fashions of the 1850s
1850s in fashion
1850s fashion in Western and Western-influenced clothing is characterized by an increase in the width of women's skirts supported by crinolines or hoops, and the beginnings of dress reform.-Gowns:...
and 1860s
1860s in fashion
1860s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by extremely full-skirted women's fashions relying on crinolines and hoops and the emergence of "alternative fashions" under the influence of the Artistic Dress movement....
.
Overview
Skirt
A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...
had moved to the rear, where elaborately draped overskirts were held in place by tapes and supported by a bustle
Bustle
A bustle is a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress, occurring predominantly in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles were worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to...
. This fashion required an underskirt, which was heavily trimmed
Trim (sewing)
Trim or trimming in clothing and home decorating is applied ornament, such as gimp, passementerie, ribbon, ruffles, or, as a verb, to apply such ornament....
with pleats, flounces, rouching, and frills. This fashion was short-lived (though the bustle would return again in the mid-1880s
1880s in fashion
Fashion in the 1880s in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by the return of the bustle. The long, lean line of the 1870s was replaced by a full, curvy silhouette with gradually widening shoulders. Fashionable waists were low and tiny below a full, low bust supported by a...
), and was succeeded by a tight-fitting silhouette with fullness as low as the knees: the cuirass bodice
Bodice
A bodice, historically, is an article of clothing for women, covering the body from the neck to the waist. In modern usage it typically refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the upper portion of a modern dress to distinguish it from...
, a form-fitting, long-waisted, boned bodice that reached below the hips, and the princess sheath dress. Sleeves were very tight fitting. Square necklines were common.
Day dresses had high necklines that were either closed, squared, or V-shaped. Sleeves of afternoon dresses were narrow throughout the period, with a tendency to flare slightly at the wrist early on. Women often draped overskirts to produce an apronlike effect from the front.
Evening gowns had low necklines and very short, off-the-shoulder sleeves, and were worn with short (later mid-length) glove
Glove
A glove is a garment covering the hand. Gloves have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb; if there is an opening but no covering sheath for each finger they are called "fingerless gloves". Fingerless gloves with one large opening rather than individual openings for each...
s. Other characteristic fashions included a velvet
Velvet
Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed,with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive feel.The word 'velvety' is used as an adjective to mean -"smooth like velvet".-Composition:...
ribbon
Ribbon
A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily for binding and tying. Cloth ribbons, most commonly silk, are often used in connection with clothing, but are also applied for innumerable useful, ornamental and symbolic purposes...
tied high around the neck and trailing behind for evening (the origin of the modern choker
Choker
A choker is a close-fitting necklace, worn high on the neck. This type of jewellery can consist of one or more bands circling the neck. Chokers can be made of a variety of materials, including velvet, plastic, beads, metal, and leather. They are often adorned in a variety of ways, including with...
necklace
Necklace
A necklace is an article of jewellery which is worn around the neck. Necklaces are frequently formed from a metal jewellery chain. Others are woven or manufactured from cloth using string or twine....
).
Tea gowns and artistic dress
Under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite BrotherhoodPre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti...
and other artistic reformers, the "anti-fashion" for Artistic dress
Artistic Dress movement
The Artistic Dress movement and its successor, Aesthetic Dress, were fashion trends in nineteenth century clothing that rejected the highly structured and heavily trimmed Paris fashion of the day in favour of beautiful materials and simplicity of design....
with its "medieval" details and uncorseted lines continued through the 1870s. Newly fashionable tea gown
Tea gown
A tea gown or tea-gown is a woman's at-home dress for informal entertaining of the late 19th to mid-20th centuries characterized by unstructured lines and light fabrics. Early tea gowns were a European development influenced by Asian clothing, part of the japonism of Aesthetic dress...
s, an informal fashion for entertaining at home, combined Pre-Raphaelite influences with the loose sack-back styles of the 18th century.
Leisure Dress
Leisure dress was becoming an important part of a women's wardrobe. Seaside dress in England had its own distinct characteristics but still followed the regular fashions of the day. Seaside dress was seen as more daring, frivolous, eccentric, and brighter. Even though the bustle was extremely cumbersome, it was still a part of seaside fashion.Undergarments
With the narrower silhouette, emphasis was placed on the bust, waist and hips. A corsetCorset
A corset is a garment worn to hold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes...
was used to help mold the body to the desired shape. This was achieved by making the corsets longer than before, and by constructing them from separate shaped pieces of fabric. To increase rigidity, they were reinforced with many strips of whalebone, cording, or pieces of leather. Steam-molding, pateted in 1868, helped create a curvaceous contour.
Skirts were supported by a hybrid of the bustle
Bustle
A bustle is a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress, occurring predominantly in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles were worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to...
and crinoline
Crinoline
Crinoline was originally a stiff fabric with a weft of horse-hair and a warp of cotton or linen thread. The fabric first appeared around 1830, but by 1850 the word had come to mean a stiffened petticoat or rigid skirt-shaped structure of steel designed to support the skirts of a woman’s dress into...
or hooped petticoat sometimes called a "crinolette". The cage structure was attached around the waist and extended down to the ground, but only extended down the back of the wearer’s legs. The crinolette itself was quickly superseded by the true bustle, which was sufficient for supporting the drapery and train at the back of the skirt.
Hairstyles and headgear
In keeping with the vertical emphasis, hairHair
Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....
was pulled back at the sides and worn in a high knot or cluster of ringlets, often with a fringe (bangs) over the forehead. False hair was commonly used. Bonnet
Bonnet (headgear)
Bonnets are a variety of headgear for both sexes, which have in common only the absence of a brim. Bonnet derives from the same word in French, where it originally indicated a type of material...
s were smaller to allow for the elaborately piled hairstyles and resembled hat
Hat
A hat is a head covering. It can be worn for protection against the elements, for ceremonial or religious reasons, for safety, or as a fashion accessory. In the past, hats were an indicator of social status...
s except for their ribbons tied under the chin. Smallish hats, some with veil
Veil
A veil is an article of clothing, worn almost exclusively by women, that is intended to cover some part of the head or face.One view is that as a religious item, it is intended to show honor to an object or space...
s, were perched on top of the head, and brimmed straw hats were worn for outdoor wear in summer.
Style gallery 1870–74
- Walking dress of 1870 has a tiered and ruffled skirt back.
- 1870 fashion plate shows jacket-bodices with draped and trimmed skirts in back. Ruffles and pleated frills are characteristic trimmings of the 1870s.
- French day dress of 1871 features a narrow red ribbon at the low neckline and a large matching bow with streamers at the back waist.
- Dolly Varden dresses of 1872 demonstrate the popular fashion of the early 1870s known as "Dolly VardenDolly Varden (costume)A Dolly Varden costume is a woman's outfit that was briefly fashionable from about 1869 to 1875 in Britain and America.-Name:Dolly Varden is a character from Charles Dickens's 1839 historical novel Barnaby Rudge set in 1780...
" - Artistic dress of the early 1870s. Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland by WhistlerJames McNeill WhistlerJames Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...
. - Jennie Jerome photographed in 1874, the year of her marriage to Lord Randolph ChurchillLord Randolph ChurchillLord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill MP was a British statesman. He was the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough and his wife Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane , daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry...
. She wears a newly-fashionable bodice tailored like a man's jacket (the forerunner of the cuirasse bodice). Her tall hat-like bonnet has a pouf of veiling, and she carries a muffMuff (handwarmer)A muff is a fashion accessory for outdoors usually made of a cylinder of fur or fabric with both ends open for keeping the hands warm. It was introduced to women's fashion in the 16th century and was popular with both men and women in the 17th and 18th centuries. By the early 20th century muffs...
. - Outdoor dresses of 1874 feature overskirts caught up with buckled ribbons. Jacket-bodices (very like the one worn by Jennie Jerome) have cuffs and high necklines. Small straw hats with flat crowns and long ribbons (similar to men's boatersBoater (hat)A boater is a kind of men's formal summer hat....
) are worn tipped forward. - Backview of a dress of 1874 shows the draping of the overskirt and the slight train on the underskirt. France.
- Dress of 1874 with draped overskirt and ruffled underskirt.
Style gallery 1874–79
- Tight dresses with long trains of the mid-1870s are trimmed with pleated ruffles, bows, buttons, and braid, and are worn with hats with ribbon streamers.
- French evening gown is festooned with flowers and is worn with mid-length white gloves and a black neck ribbon. The high-knotted hairstyle is typical of the mid-1870s.
- Day dress of c. 1875 has a trailing overskirt and is trimmed with a profusion of ruffles and ribbons. Hair is braided into a crown high on the head.
- Semi-sheer dresses of c. 1877 show back fullness beginning at hip-level rather than the waist as in 1874–5. The tight, princess-line dress on the right fits smoothly to the body from the shoulders to the lower hips.
- Evening gown of 1878 has a long train and a squared neckline. It is worn with opera-length gloves.
- Jacket and skirt costume of 1878 features a long train trimmed with pleated frills and ruching. Matching ruching trims the cuffs of the sleeves.
- Wedding gown of 1876 features a train.
Caricature gallery
- Cartoon "Veto" by George du MaurierGeorge du MaurierGeorge Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier...
from Punch, satirizing the tight dress styles of the late 1870s. - An extreme class contrast: "Young lady of fashion, 1871" vs. "London Dairywoman".
- From the Danish Punch, satirizing the general fashion in 1876
- Cartoon by George du MaurierGeorge du MaurierGeorge Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier...
from Punch, May 25, 1878, satirizing both impractical women's fashions and men's formal military uniforms.
Men's fashion
Shirt
A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body. Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for almost any garment other than outerwear such as sweaters, coats, jackets, or undergarments such as bras, vests or base layers...
s and the general replacement of necktie
Necktie
A necktie is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck...
s tied in bow knots with the four-in-hand and later the Ascot tie
Ascot tie
An ascot tie, or ascot, is a narrow neckband with wide pointed wings, traditionally made of pale grey patterned silk. This wide, formal tie is usually patterned, folded over, and fastened with a stickpin or tie tack. It is usually reserved for wear with morning dress for formal daytime weddings and...
.
Coats and trousers
Frock coatFrock coat
A frock coat is a man's coat characterised by knee-length skirts all around the base, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The double-breasted style is sometimes called a Prince Albert . The frock coat is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at the back, and some features...
s remained fashionable, but new shorter versions arose, distinguished from the sack coat by a waist seam. Waistcoat
Waistcoat
A waistcoat or vest is a sleeveless upper-body garment worn over a dress shirt and necktie and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wear, and as the third piece of the three-piece male business suit.-Characteristics and use:...
s (U.S. vests) were generally cut straight across the front and had collars and lapels, but collarless waistcoats were also worn.
Three-piece suits consisting of a high-buttoned sack coat with matching waistcoat and trousers
Trousers
Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...
, called ditto suit
Ditto suit
The ditto suit is an early precursor of the lounge suit but often had a coat more akin to a frock coat or morning coat. That the waistcoat and trousers were matching made the suit more informal than those with silk faced lapels worn with formal striped trousers.-External links:* on display at the...
s or (UK) lounge suits, grew in popularity; the sack coat might be cutaway so that only the top button could be fastened.
The cutaway morning coat was still worn for informal day occasions in Europe and major cities elsewhere. Frock coat
Frock coat
A frock coat is a man's coat characterised by knee-length skirts all around the base, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The double-breasted style is sometimes called a Prince Albert . The frock coat is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at the back, and some features...
s were required for more formal daytime dress. Formal evening dress
Formal wear
Formal wear and formal dress are the general terms for clothing suitable for formal social events, such as a wedding, formal garden party or dinner, débutante cotillion, dance, or race...
remained a dark tail coat and trousers. The coat now fastened lower on the chest and had wider lapels. A new fashion was a dark rather than white waistcoat. Evening wear was worn with a white bow tie and a shirt with the new winged collar.
Topcoat
Overcoat
An overcoat is a type of long coat intended to be worn as the outermost garment. Overcoats usually extend below the knee, but are sometimes mistakenly referred to as topcoats, which are short coats that end at or above the knees. Topcoats and overcoats together are known as outercoats...
s had wide lapels and deep cuffs, and often featured contrasting velvet collars. Furlined full-length overcoat
Overcoat
An overcoat is a type of long coat intended to be worn as the outermost garment. Overcoats usually extend below the knee, but are sometimes mistakenly referred to as topcoats, which are short coats that end at or above the knees. Topcoats and overcoats together are known as outercoats...
s were luxury items in the coldest climates.
Full-length trousers
Trousers
Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...
were worn for most occasions; tweed or woollen breeches were worn for hunting and hiking.
In 1873, Levi Strauss
Levi Strauss
Levi Strauss was a German-Jewish immigrant to the United States who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm, Levi Strauss & Co., began in 1853 in San Francisco, California.-Origins:...
and Jacob Davis began to sell the original copper-riveted blue jeans
Blue Jeans
"Blue Jeans" is a sentimental popular song written by Harry D. Kerr and Lou Traveller in 1920. In the song, the singer is reminiscing about a long-ago young love that happened somewhere in the "hills of the old Cumberland." The chorus echoes the singer's longing:* The Parlor Songs Collection.* by...
in San Francisco. These became popular with the local multitude of gold seekers, who wanted strong clothing with durable pockets.
Shirts and neckties
The points of high upstanding shirt collarsCollar (clothing)
In clothing, a collar is the part of a shirt, dress, coat or blouse that fastens around or frames the neck. Among clothing construction professionals, a collar is differentiated from other necklines such as revers and lapels, by being made from a separate piece of fabric, rather than a folded or...
were increasingly pressed into "wings".
Necktie fashions included the four-in-hand and, toward the end of the decade, the Ascot tie, a tie with wide wings and a narrow neckband, fastened with a jewel or stickpin. Ties knotted in a bow remained a conservative fashion, and a white bowtie was required with formal evening wear.
A narrow ribbon tie was an alternative for tropical climates, and was increasingly worn elsewhere, especially in the Americas.
Accessories
Top hatTop hat
A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...
s remained a requirement for upper class formal wear; bowlers
Bowler hat
The bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby , billycock or bombin, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for the English soldier and politician Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester...
and soft felt hats in a variety of shapes were worn for more casual occasions, and flat straw boaters
Boater (hat)
A boater is a kind of men's formal summer hat....
were worn for yachting and other nautical pastimes.
Style gallery 1870–75
- 1870s photo of President Rutherford B. HayesRutherford B. HayesRutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
. His coat and shawl-collared vest or waistcoat have covered buttons. Note functional buttonholes all the way up his coat lapel. - Three-piece suit with frock coat, 1870s.
- Oliver Hazard Perry Morton wears a narrow string tie, 1870s.
- Gentleman in a railway carriage wears a dust-colored coat, trousers, and collar-less waistcoat with a dark red necktie. He wears a fur-lined overcoat and tan gloves. Britain, 1872.
- Plate from The Gazette of Fashion shows a fur-lined overcoat (left) and double-breasted topcoat (right) with braid trim and decorative topstitching, 1872. Checked trousers were quite fashionable.
- Photographer Mathew Brady wears a coat with braid trim on the collar and lapels over a matching waistcoat. His turned-down collar is worn over a four-in-hand necktie. 1875.
Style gallery 1875–79
- Two-piece lounge suit of tartanTartanTartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns...
wool twill buttons high in front. English lounge suits were typically worn with bowler hats. 1875-80, England, Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles County Museum of ArtThe Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
, M.2010.33.9a-b. - Major-General The Hon. James MacDonald is drawn by James TissotJames TissotJames Jacques Joseph Tissot was a French painter, who spent much of his career in Britain.-Biography:Tissot was born in Nantes, France. In about 1856, he began study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Hippolyte Flandrin and Lamothe, and became friendly with Edgar Degas and James Abbott...
in a slightly fitted, double-breastedDouble-breastedIn clothing, the term double-breasted refers to a coat or jacket with wide, overlapping front flaps and two parallel columns of buttons or snaps; by contrast, a single-breasted coat has a narrow overlap and only one column of buttons. In most modern double-breasted coats, one column of buttons is...
topcoat with a diagonally positioned breast pocket and a contrasting collar. His shirt collar is pressed into flat wings and is worn with a wide, dark tie. He wears a top hat and gloves. 1876. - 1879 photo of American lawman Bat MastersonBat MastersonWilliam Barclay "Bat" Masterson was a figure of the American Old West known as a buffalo hunter, U.S. Marshal and Army scout, avid fisherman, gambler, frontier lawman, and sports editor and columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph...
wearing a three-piece suit and a bowler hatBowler hatThe bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby , billycock or bombin, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for the English soldier and politician Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester...
. His cutaway sack coat has a high front closure and is worn buttoned only at the top, over a vest or waistcoat cut straight across at the waist and decorated with a prominent watch chain. - Vanity Fair sketch of 1879 shows Sir Albert Abdallah David Sassoon in "morning dress" (formal daywear): grey trousers, dark cutaway coat, white waistcoat, wing-collared shirt and dark tie.
- British statesman William Gladstone wears conservative clothing; his tall collar is still upstanding, and he wears his tie in a bow knot. 1879.
Necktie gallery
1873 portraits of members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario illustrate the variety of fashionable neckwear (and facial hair).Children's fashion
Infants continued to be dressed in flowing gowns, a style that continued into the early twentieth century. Gender dress changes often did not occur until a child was five or six; however, in the later decades gender dress came much sooner. Girls' ages could be depicted often based on the length of their skirt. As the girls got older, they wore longer skirts. A four year old would wear her skirt at knee length; ten to twelve at mid-calf; and by sixteen, the girls dress would be ankle length. The age of a boy could often be decided based on the length and type of trouser or how similar the attire was to that of a man's. Boys often dressed similar to adult males, as they too wore blazers and Norfolk jackets.Much influence on the styles of children's dress came from artist Kate Greenaway
Kate Greenaway
Catherine Greenaway , known as Kate Greenaway, was an English children's book illustrator and writer, who spent much of her childhood at Rolleston, Nottinghamshire. She studied at what is now the Royal College of Art in London, which at that time had a separate section for women, and was headed by...
, an illustrator of children's books. She strongly influenced styles of young girls' dress, as she often showed girls dressed in empire styles in her books. The idea of children's dress being taken from books is also found is styles such as the Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by English playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was originally published as a serial in the St. Nicholas Magazine between November 1885 and October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's in 1886...
suit which was worn by the hero of a children's book.
See also
- Victorian fashionVictorian fashionVictorian fashion comprises the various fashions and trends in British culture that emerged and grew in province throughout the Victorian era and the reign of Queen Victoria, a period which would last from June 1837 to January 1901. Covering nearly two thirds of the 19th century, the 63 year reign...
- Corset controversyCorset controversyThe corset controversy is an ensemble of letters and articles concerning the corset that appeared in newspapers and periodicals in the 19th century.-Introduction:...
- Dolly Varden (costume)Dolly Varden (costume)A Dolly Varden costume is a woman's outfit that was briefly fashionable from about 1869 to 1875 in Britain and America.-Name:Dolly Varden is a character from Charles Dickens's 1839 historical novel Barnaby Rudge set in 1780...
- Artistic Dress movementArtistic Dress movementThe Artistic Dress movement and its successor, Aesthetic Dress, were fashion trends in nineteenth century clothing that rejected the highly structured and heavily trimmed Paris fashion of the day in favour of beautiful materials and simplicity of design....
External links
- History of 1870s bustles
- Plates from Peterson's Magazine 1870
- Plates from Peterson's Magazine 1875
- Plates from Peterson's Magazine 1877
- Victorian Women's fashion: 1870s
- Victorian Women's Fashion, 1850-1900: Hairstyles
- 1870s Men's Fashions – circa 1870 Men's Fashion Photos with Annotations
- From Reforming Fashion, 1850-1914: Politics, Health, and Art, Ohio State University :