Dolly Varden (costume)
Encyclopedia
Costume
The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances...
is a woman's outfit that was briefly fashionable from about 1869 to 1875
1870s in fashion
1870s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a gradual return to a narrow silhouette after the full-skirted fashions of the 1850s and 1860s.-Overview:...
in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Name
Dolly Varden is a character from Charles DickensCharles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's 1839 historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
Barnaby Rudge set in 1780. The Dolly Varden costume was a 1870s version of fashions of the 1770s and 1780s.
Fashion
The term Dolly Varden in dress is generally understood to mean a brightly patterned, usually flowered, dress with a polonaisePolonaise (clothing)
A polonaise is a woman's garment of the later 1770s and 1780s or a similar revival style of the 1880s inspired by Polish national costume, consisting of a gown with a fitted bodice and cutaway, draped and poufed overskirt, worn over an underskirt or petticoat.The eighteenth century polonaise was a...
overskirt gathered up and draped over a separate underskirt
Underskirt
Underskirt may refer to the following:* Half slip, a modern undergarment worn by women beneath a dress or skirt to help it hang smoothly* Petticoat, an undergarment to be worn by women under a skirt, dress or sari...
. The overdress was typically made from printed cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
or chintz
Chintz
Chintz is glazed calico cloth printed with flowers and other patterns in different colours. Unglazed calico is called "cretonne". The word Calico is derived from the name of the Indian city Calicut to which it had a manufacturing association.-History:Chintz was originally a woodblock printed,...
, although it can be made from other materials such as lightweight wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
, silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
and muslin
Muslin
Muslin |sewing patterns]], such as for clothing, curtains, or upholstery. Because air moves easily through muslin, muslin clothing is suitable for hot, dry climates.- Etymology and history :...
. A 1869 fashion doll
Fashion doll
Fashion dolls are dolls primarily designed to be dressed to reflect fashion trends. They are manufactured both as toys for children to play with and as collectibles for adult collectors. The dolls are usually modeled after teen girls or adult women, though child, male, and even some non-human...
in the collection of the V&A Museum of Childhood
V&A Museum of Childhood
The V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green in the East End of London is a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum , which is the United Kingdom's national museum of applied arts.-History:...
is dressed in the Dolly Varden mode; unusually the outfit is in dark colours. The Gallery of Costume in Manchester holds a more typical Dolly Varden dress in its collections, made of white linen with a pink and mauve flowered print.
A Dolly Varden hat as it relates to the dress, is usually understood to mean a flat straw hat
Straw hat
A straw hat is a brimmed hat that is woven out of straw or reeds. The hat is designed to protect the head from the sun and against heatstroke, but straw hats were also used in fashion and as a decorative element of a uniform.- Manufacture :...
trimmed with flowers and ribbons, very like the 18th century bergère hat
Bergère hat
A bergère hat is a flat-brimmed straw hat with a shallow crown, usually trimmed with ribbon and flowers. It could be worn in various ways with the brim folded back or turned up or down at whim....
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Popular culture
The 'Dolly Varden' fashion fadFAD
In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide is a redox cofactor involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in two different redox states, which it converts between by accepting or donating electrons. The molecule consists of a riboflavin moiety bound to the phosphate...
inspired many popular songs
Popular Songs
Popular Songs is the twelfth full-length album by Hoboken-based rock band Yo La Tengo, released digitally, on CD, and double LP on September 8, 2009. It is their 7th album released on Matador and the eighth album to be given Matador's Buy Early Get Now treatment...
, such as G.W. Moore's Dressed In A Dolly Varden and Alfred Lee's novelty song
Novelty song
A novelty song is a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music. The other two divisions...
Dolly Varden (published Cleveland, 1872) which contains the lyrics:
Have you seen my little girl? She doesn’t wear a bonnet.
She’s got a monstrous flip-flop hat with cherry ribbons on it.
She dresses in bed furniture just like a flower garden
A blowin’ and a growin’ and they call it Dolly Varden..
In the 1870s, the Theatre Royal
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
presented an entertainment called The Dolly Varden Polka, composed by W.C. Levey.
The fashion led to the naming of the Dolly Varden trout
Dolly Varden trout
The Dolly Varden trout, Salvelinus malma malma, is a subspecies of anadromous fish in the salmon family, and is technically a char. Although many of the fish are anadromous, the fish also exists in landlocked waters.- Range :The subspecies S. m...
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