Brief Timeline of Nineteenth-Century Dress

1800s

Skirts & Petticoats:

Textiles:

Headgear:

Hairdos:

Outerwear:

Accessories:

1810s

Skirts & Petticoats:

Textiles:

Headgear:

Hairdos:

Outerwear:

Accessories:

1820s

Skirts & Petticoats:

Textiles:

Headgear:

Hairdos:

Outerwear:

Accessories:

 

Fashionable "marie sleeves" on an empire-style dress

The stiffened hemlines and conical skirts of the mid-20s, portending the massively extended hemlines of the 50s.  Note that the waistline is moving towards the natural waist.  The little puff at the top of the sleeves is also a sign of things to come

A walking dress demonstrating the shorter, fuller (so-called "ballet"?) skirts and the puffier sleeves of the late 20s and 30s .

1830s

Sleeves:  The 1830s are, in their essence, all about the sleeves.  A wide variety of terms emerged to distinguish between the nuances of puffiness (beret sleeves, imbecile sleeves, elephant sleeves, leg o' mutton or gigot sleeves), but the bottom line was that these sleeves were BIG.  They required elaborate devices recalling the pannier and prefiguring the hoop petticoat to give them maximum volume.  The huge sleeves have been credited with making the waist appear smaller by comparison, but for me, the overall impression is of stubby bulk.  

Skirts & Petticoats:

Textiles:

Headgear:  

Hairdos: As dresses became more horizontal, hairdos went vertical to counteract the toadstoolish look that these dresses gave to all but the most sylph-like figures.  As the sleeves were outré, so too were the coiffures that topped them.  Hair was divided into 3 units:  a large arrangement on the top of the head, often embellished with ribbons, feathers, flowers and other doodads, and two protuberant side pieces sticking out over the ears or around the temples.

Outerwear:

Accessories:

A day dress from 1830--note the characteristic sleeves & pelerine.

A wedding dress from 1830--the white lace cape here is also a pelerine, and the sleeves are in this example as protuberant as physics will allow.

The extreme stylings of ghastly stepmother Hyacinth and the more modest updo of virtuous stepdaughter Molly Brown in the BBC's adaptation of Wives and Daughters--Hyacinth's hairdo is particularly representative of the period fashions.  More examples of early 1830s hairdos follow, from contemporary fashion plates.  

1840s

Sleeves:  The extravagantly puffed sleeves of the 30s give way to more modest puffs, such as those gracing the "Victoria" sleeve, before tight-fitting, straight "Amadis" sleeves became popular in late 1840.  A mancheron, a sort of short over-sleeve, diversified the look.  Around 1845, these were supplanted by pagoda sleeves, long, wide sleeves with false white undersleeves, or engageantes.  Day dresses were only occasionally and modestly flounced in the 40s; ball gowns, on the other hand, usually had double or triple skirts or flounces.

Skirts & petticoats:  full skirt, held in dome shape by the conjoined efforts of many (8-14) petticoats and small, crescent-shaped bustle pads.  Petticoats were increasingly reinforced with horsehair cloth or "crinoline," though this is different from the later metal crinoline, known to us as the classic hoop skirt and to Victorians as "the cage."   Skirts were longer than in the 30s and trailed on the ground, unless looped up with the help of a chatelaine for walking.

Textiles:  Colored with vegetable dyes, which produce relatively muted tints.  Silks worn day and night in a variety of patterns and effects.  "Shot" or "changeable" fabrics--usually taffetas or stiff silks that changed color depending on the viewer's angle--were very popular.

Headgear:  Poke bonnets of Leghorn, rice straw, or silk were de rigeur for outdoor wear in the summer; velvet and satin were used in the winter.  Bonnets and caps covered most of the sides of women's heads, with bonnet brims almost meeting beneath the chin.   Caps were worn indoors by all women once they had had children.

Accessories:  gloves were necessary, even indoors.  Fans and handkerchiefs were also necessary; hair bracelets began to be popular.

Hairdos:  Rather severe updos, the hair invariably parted in the middle and pulled back sleekly.  The look was slightly softened (for those with less than perfect features) by side ringlets over the ears or by loops or braids made of the hair over the ears and loosely attached to the bun at the back of the head (usually the middle of the back of the head--above the nape and below the crown).  Overall, however, it was an unforgiving, if demure, style.

Outerwear:  shawls from Kashmir, delicately patterned and of the finest softest wool in the world were highly prized throughout the century.  According Alison Gernsheim, the finest shawls could be drawn through the circumference of a wedding ring.  Norwich and Paisley in England turned out high-quality imitations of Indian shawls.  Mantles, wraps, and pelisses, known collectively as pardessus, were loose fitting in the first half of the decade and fitted to the waist in the second half.

Feminist Analysis:  These dresses appear simpler and more graceful than those that followed, but the longer skirts with increasing numbers of petticoats hampered movement, and a certain droopiness to the hairstyle and dress emphasized feminine modesty and demureness to a depressing degree.  Like most Victorian styles, though, the look of the 40s had the capacity to deconstruct its own rhetoric:  the tightness of the sleeves and the flatness of the hair emphasized any bodily or facial angularity and masculinity a woman might have, to the detriment of the overall message of feminine suppineness.

2 examples of hairwork jewelry--left, the bracelet is of hair; right, the wheat image is constructed of hair.

Ford Madox Brown's wife models a typical hat of the period in his painting "The Last of England"

dress with pelerine (actually from '37-9)

Mary Shelley, author, modeling a typical evening neckline of the period, as well as a very characteristic hairdo and a stylish droopiness to her person (see especially the anatomy-defying sloping shoulders)

21c "changeable" or "shot" dupioni--note the 2-tone effect of red & gold

a bertha (the swag of fabric around the neckline) and a typical hairdo of the period--probably late 40s.

1850s

Sleeves:  The pagoda sleeve with engageantes remained dominant.

Skirts & Petticoats:  In contrast to skirts in the 40s, those of the 50s were copiously flounced, often with pinked edges and stiffened to stick out.  A disposition flounces were fashionable, made of a fabric with a specially printed border at the edge, usually designed to coordinate with a print from which the rest of the dress is made.  Morning dresses sported around 3 flounces; evening dresses, often, five.  Empress Eugenie wore a dress sporting 104 tiny flounces.  As this suggests, skirts in the 50s became increasingly busy, with the smooth, flowing lines of the 40s giving way to strong horizontal elements or innumerable bows, ruffles, flounces, puffs, and artificial flowers that imparted an odd sense of massiness and immobility to women's dress.  Skirts expanded in circumference with the advent of the cage or artificial crinoline in ~1856, and also acquired a more rigid bell shape.  This crinoline, it is worth mentioning, is the descendent of the Renaissance farthingale and the eighteenth-century panniers, also often made of rigid materials such as wood or metal.

Textiles:  Fabrics for day and evening became heavier and richer, with brocades and shot silks being worn even on morning dresses, one of the most informal stages of Victorian dress.  Evening dresses, on the other hand, were of dianphous tartalans and tulles, creating a delicate, fluttery, busy effect.

Headgear:  Bonnet brims shrank, exposing the front half of the head.  Hats of silk, velvet, or plush became increasingly acceptable for women in lieu of bonnets, except at formal events.  Broad-brimmed "seaside hats" were worn on informal outdoor occasions.  Indoor caps were less requisite, even for the aged, with insubstantial clusters of ribbons or lace or flowers being substituted.

Hairdos:  Side ringlets went out, though some women, like Elizabeth Barrett Browning, stubbornly retained that softening element.

Outerwear:

Accessories:  Parasols became increasingly popular.  Gloves were still proclaimed essential, even indoors, for women, though period photographs suggest this dictum was not invariably obeyed.

Feminist Analysis:  The artificial crinoline was the defining fashion innovation of the decade.  Freeing women from the weight, heat, and mobility problems of the 8-14 petticoats heretofore worn to hold skirts erect, it allowed ease of movement and lightness.  In addition, by holding the hem out to ever more extravagant widths, it allowed an easing of the corset, as the wide hems made waists look smaller without tight lacing.  Much as women loved these aspects of their new petticoats, they presented substantial risks to both dignity and health: they blew up in the wind, popped up in the front revealingly when the wearer sat down, caught on carriages, fences, and any other projectile (á là Gone with the Wind), and acted as a sail, allowing the wind to knock women over and even (perhaps apocryphally?) blow them off cliffs.  Most troublingly, if a dress caught fire it became almost impossible to smother because of the frame holding the skirt in mid-air.  The poet Longfellow's wife died in this way, as did the first wife of feminist Caroline Norton's second husband.  On a philosophical level, the dresses seemed to symbolize women's sacred inviobility (cartoons of the period, generally critical of the crinoline, depict flummoxed men unable to so much as kiss their wives' hands because the hoopskirts hold them at a prohibitive distance) and also her immurement in the home--she was insulated from the world by a ring several yards around.  Ironically, of course, this apparent separation for the outside world was belied by the dresses' new functionality.

Fringe!  Note also the pagoda sleeves and engageante on this reconstruction gown

a wheel farthingale from the Renaissance--they were also made in cone shape

a modern reconstruction of 18c panniers (+ corset) from www.demode.com 

The artificial crinoline of the 1850s

an a disposition skirt with a coordinated fan bodice and pagoda sleeves with engeantes

Elizabeth Barrett Browning tenaciously adhering to her ringlets

1860s

Sleeves:  The bishop sleeve began to give pagoda sleeves a run for their money, and engageants ceased to sport broderie anglaise.

Skirts & Petticoats:  To accommodate the new waistline, crinolines became narrower below the waist, creating a more tapered and less dome-like effect.  Goring the volumes of skirt material at the waist, rather than gathering it, enhanced this slimmer silhouette.  The hem of the skirt, however, remained as wide as ever, or possibly more so.  At the same time, the bulk of the petticoat began to move towards the back of the body, with a slightly flattened front to the skirt.  This allowed women to pick up things (and children) without knocking them over with their protruding hoops.   This backward-moving tendency continued, resulting in the bustle.  Trimming moved to the lower half of the skirt.  In informal settings, such as the country or the beach, the skirt could be looped up in swags, revealing the shorter and less expensive petticoat and protecting expensive skirt material from mud, water, dirt, &c.  Inevitably, however, petticoats became fancier--even made of dress material--to withstand observation, somewhat defeating the initial purpose.  Toward the end of the decade, a different form of looping up became popular:  overskirts were draped across the front of the dress and gathered in a "Pompadour" pouf on the back, prefiguring the bustle.  Petticoats now came in scarlet, magenta, flannel, taffeta, & alpaca.  At this point, a distinction was made between walking dresses (barely ankle-length) and visiting dresses (to the floor--presupposing the wearer uses a carriage).  Walking dress hems were cut out in scallops, vandykes, and turrets.  Hems also became narrower.  Women frequently owned two petticoats: one short and cone-shaped for walking, and the other longer and wider for evening.

Textiles:  Fabrics became even heavier than in the 50s, with moiré (i.e., watered) silk being very popular.  Aniline-dyed fabrics increasingly popular, esp purple, mauve, magenta, and solferino.  Altogether a vibrant and sometimes garish period.

Headgear:  The spoon bonnet came in, resembling the bonnet of the 50s, but with a triangular point above the face.  It was replaced by the Bibi in 1864, a tiny cap-like bonnet that <gasp!> revealed the back of the neck in public.  Hats were still increasing in popularity since the onset of their acceptability in the previous decade, but they were considered less formal than bonnets.  Hats and bonnets from this time on would have delighted the heart of the taxidermist, as they sported dead birds, insects, and (so Eliza Lynn Linton claimed) reptiles, in addition to the more usual artificial fruits and flowers.  To accommodate the new hairdos, hats came to perch precariously on the front of the head, more a decoration than a covering.

Hairdos:  in the early 60s, a loose gathering of the hair into a hairnet was acceptable; but chignons and more elaborate confabulations requiring the admixture of artificial hair became the norm.  These moved higher and higher onto the head, displacing hats in the process.  In the mid-60s, curled bangs began to be worn (immortalized by Pa in the Little House on the Prairie books as "that lunatic fringe").

Outerwear:  The loose mantle predominated during these years, giving women a massive, mountain-like outline.  A loose jacket called a sac paletot or a casque, made of the same material of the dress, could be worn, a precursor to the tailor-made suit.

Accessories:

Feminist Analysis:  The movement of the hoops from an equidistant rotation around the body to a flat front with a protuberant back helped prevent women from knocking things over and catching on fire.  It also was a foretaste of the the dominant change of the last half of the century, from a dress that symbolizes stasis to one that suggests motion.  To the modern eye, this modified crinoline is also more attractive.

 

illustrating the dumpling-like look achieved by dome-shaped hoops combined with a high waist and a Zouave or bolero jacket over a blouse

Characteristic flat-fronted crinoline silhouette from the '60s

The electric blue made possible by aniline dyes and enthusiastically adopted by Victorian women

a pre-bustle butt-pouf (not sure if this technically qualifies as a pompadour or not)--note also the use of fringe

an early bustle

Queen Victoria models the popular heavy moiré fabric of the 60s

1870s

Sleeves:  Elbow sleeves became popular, usually tight and straight.

Skirts & Petticoats:  The bustle flourished and then diminished in 1873; the skirts also narrowed.  At the same time, embellishments thrived, including pleatings, kiltings, ruchings, and fringe--one is sometime reminded of very plush drapes or an overstuffed sofa.  By 1876, the bustle was reduced to a vestigial bow or puff, the front of the skirt being pulled tight across the abdomen.  Long trains appeared on all kinds of dresses; in combination with princess dresses, these created the mermaid look.  Petticoats got thinner and thinner.  Apron-like overskirts or "fishwifes" were ubiquitous.  

Textiles:  Dresses of this decade were marked by using a combination of fabrics, usually the bodice and overskirt of one fabric, with the underskirt of another.  In particular, the combination of a glossy satin with a velvet of the same color was popular.  Olive green, red, and dark blue were favored colors in this period.

Headgear:  Hats went the way of the bonnet and became increasingly tiny and non-functional.  Only old ladies wore caps at this time.  

Hairdos:  large chignons with elaborate curls and braids, generally enhanced with false hair until 1876, when the hair began to be worn closer to the head, higher on the crown, and with a small fringe of bangs.  

Outerwear:

Accessories:  Long gloves of 12-15 buttons were worn on formal occasions.  Black velvet  ribbons were worn as necklaces.  Muffs were decorated with stuffed birds and bird parts.  

Feminist Analysis:  The bustle, with it heavy draperies, was a weighty appendage, and its sashaying action (which could be viewed as graceful or as waddling depending on the wearer and viewer) as the wearer walked would have impeded very swift movement.  The dropped waist of the cuirass and the close fit of the polonaise bodices both required much tighter lacing than women had indulged in from the 40s through the 60s, when ballooning hemlines created the benign illusion of narrow waists.  The length of the bodice and the tightness of the sleeves also made women's physical constraint at the time more apparent to the viewer, a fact which many people found explicitly attractive.  Nonetheless, the appearance of the bustle, with all of its heft thrust behind the body, suggests rapid forward motion, and the simpler skirts with their fishwife aprons and diminished bustles were able to attain an appearance of action that more unwieldy tournures were denied.  Trains, of course, would have worked to counteract any appearance of movement.  Nonetheless, it may be that the bustle of the 70s and 80s symbolized the increasing mobility and activity of women, and prefigured the Age of the Bicycle.

a cuirass bodice by Worth

the upholstery look and a cuirass bodice 

the narrower, post-'73 skirt on a dress with princess seams

1880s

Sleeves:  Sleeves remained slim and tight.

Skirts & Petticoats:  Skirt trimmings became increasingly elaborate and horizontal in the early eighties.  Trains were (mercifully) reserved for evening wear.  In 1882, the bustle or tournure began to reappear in England.  It was lower on the back than previously, and protruded in an abrupt perpendicular way from the back.  Tournures were small wire baskets, some with cushions on top.  Tight lacing remained requisite.  As a relief, married women were allowed to change into loose-fitting tea gowns in the afternoon.  Wool was believed to be particularly hygenic for underwear.  Now that women were taking up bicycling, modistes began to experiment with bloomer-like adaptations for female riders, some concealed under an overskirt, and some exposed.  Cyclists might opt for a tight-fitting and supportive bodice in lieu of a corset.  Tailor-mades (suit-like ensembles sewn by tailors instead of dressmakers) became widely popular in this period, especially among white collar working women, middle class women, and "emancipated" or "strong-minded" women.  After 1887, overskirts ceased to be worn and a straight skirt line was preferred.  In 1889, the second decline of the bustle began.

Textiles:

Headgear:  Brimmed hats were worn in the summer.

Hairdos:  Close to the head, with the bun moving lower toward the nape.  

Outerwear:  Mantles and outerwear were split in the back to accommodate the revived bustle.  

Accessories:  Women's jewelry took on zoological and entomological themes.

Feminist Analysis:  The appearance of the bicycle and of clothes made to ride them changed perceptions of women's proper sphere.  The daintiness and domesticity implied by dresses from the 40s through the 60s was replaced by a self-evident mobility and strength.  

 

the smoother, stiffer outline of post-'82 dresses

a tea gown for afternoon relief from tight lacing

an insect brooch from the 80s-90s of pearl, gold, demantoid garnets, and diamond (The Met)

1890s

Sleeves:  Sleeves on the upper arm became increasingly large, though the elbow-to-wrist was tight--this style was called the balloon sleeve.  In 1896 the gigot or leg o' mutton sleeve became fashionable, distinguishable from the balloon because it began its poufiness higher above the elbow.

Skirts & Petticoats:  Skirts were straight, gored, without folds, tight at the waist and hips and wide at the hem and full at the back.  Skirts were shorter for walking.  Evening gowns had trains.  Overskirts were passé.   Petticoats were made of heavy expensive materials, like brocades and glace silks, intended to creating an intriguing rustling sound as the wearer moved.  Knickerbockers, bloomers, and divided skirts continued to be worn for cycling.

Textiles:  Solid colors, stiff, and non-clingy.  Bright, strong shades were worn, including heliotrope (purple) and yellow.  Silk was worn for day dresses.

Headgear:  Straw boaters continued to be very popular; hats in general were small-brimmed and worn horizontally on the top of the head.  Bonnets were largely for the elderly.

Hairdos:  Fairly simple buns.

Outerwear:

Accessories:  With tailor-mades, women usually worn a tie, like a man.  It became common for women to wear some makeup (though it remained controversial, especially among stodgy old men, for some decades)

Feminist Analysis:  Although tight-lacing and a general rigidity of dress characterize this period, the adoption of men's suits and of the jaunty boater hats gave women an active, out-in-the-world appearance; the rhetoric of their clothes suggested (relative) emancipation and even gender-bending.

a more elaborate bodice paired with a simpler skirt--note, too, the use of lace, characteristic of the period

a cycling outfit with bloomers or knickerbockers, presumably worn with boots and thick stockings

a tailor-made walking dress

leg o' mutton sleeves in their fin-de-siecle incarnation

1900s

Sleeves: were more variable in this period, though they lost the extreme poufiness of the 1890s.  Small puffs remained, and a modified pagoda sleeve emerged.

Skirts & Petticoats:  The line of the skirt was much less stiff, more graceful.  Skirts were gored and or flounced at the bottom to achieve a trumpet or morning glory shape.  Trains appeared and disappeared for day dresses, but the new, slimmer skirt shape with the addition of trains made walking difficult.  Though a slim waist was necessary, the ideal figure was overall much more curvaceous than is our fashionably undernourished ideal; indeed, some women padded their hips to provide the requisite curves for their figures.  Special visiting dresses were not needed now that women's ordinary day dresses were so fancy. Towards the end of the decade, however, skirts became narrower and dresses were generally less embellished. Hobble skirts were an extreme manifestation of this tendency, being long tubes that narrowed around the ankles, impeding movement. The noisy petticoats of the last decade came to be seen as vulgar, while their colors became the softer blues, pinks, and yellows. Tailor-mades were worn for physical activity and also as morning dress. Motoring required yards of gauze veil, a hat, a coat, and driving goggles.

Textiles:  Thinner, floaty fabrics such as muslin, gauze, chiffon, and lace in soft pastel colors.

Headgear:  The brimless toque was the dominant form of headgear, but amply brimmed hats with copious trimmings were also popular.

Hairdos: Hair was piled high with a large "pompadour" or pouf in the front, usually buoyed up with an admixture of hair not entirely the wearer's own. The "permanent" wave was available for more money than most people made in a year (₤250).

Outerwear:

Accessories:  Lace was the dominant trim of the period, albeit assisted by sequins and beads. 

Feminist Analysis:  Although the posture induced by the corset was appalling, and tight-lacing remained necessary, dresses from this period, thanks to their elaborate yet delicate embellishments, were singularly lovely and graceful.  Ideologically, they are dreadful, but aesthetically, they're fabulous.

The S-bend (AKA pigeon-breast, AKA mono-bosom), a posture enforced by new, straight-fronted corsets, demonstrated on this gorgeous Worth ball gown

Helena Bonham-Carter has worn many a kangaroo-pouched blouse in her acting career (A Room with a View)

The swirled train pose typical of the period, as modeled by a gown of the Empress Maria Feodorovna.  Note also the poufing of the bodice

An example of the narrower skirts from the end of the decade, with a characteristic big, floppy hat for the summer.  Note the hyperbolic S-bend here, too.

1910s