An interesting article: How Tuberculosis Influenced Victorian Fashion

It was often called “consumption” because of how much weight those inflicted with tuberculosis lost. Another nickname was “the white plague” because of how pale people would become. And yet, its final nickname was “the romantic disease.” People became enamored with the physical effects of contracting the illness. Pale skin, thin waists, and flushed lips and cheeks from long-term fevers were seen as quite desirable. “Consumption, I am aware, is a flattering malady,” Charlotte Brontë wrote in a letter as she watched her sister fall ever sicker with the disease. Read more: everythinggp

The transition between the Georgian and Victorian eras

The transition between what are commonly termed the Georgian and Victorian eras is one of the great turning points of British history. The dividing line is often considered to be either 1830 (the death of George IV) or 1837 (the accession of Queen Victoria

The sphere in which the end of the Georgian Era can be mostly clearly witnessed is within the Church of England. The Church of England was transmuted from an essentially Latitudinarian Protestant sect, suspicious of ‘enthusiasm’, into a Church fully asserting its historic Catholicity, and strongly influenced by medieval ritual.

In the early 19th century, a parish vestry had wide-ranging responsibilities for such areas as poor relief, tax collection, registration of births, marriages and deaths, and road maintenance. A series of legislative measures of the 1830s gave such duties to secular bodies like poor law unions and civil vestries, making the Church’s sole concern religion.

It would be completely unjust to characterise the earlier Georgian Era as devoid of charity, but it is probably fair to state that it had never been accompanied by such spiritual fervour as shown by reformers like Wilberforce, Hannah More, Henry Thornton and Charles Simeon. Their main cause was the abolition of the slave trade, an object achieved in 1807, followed by the total abolition of slavery in 1833.

Despite the excessive pomp of George’s coronation in 1821, the monarchy – and thus the establishment – had reached its lowest point. In the eyes of many, including the growing number of political radicals, it had lost all moral integrity and could no longer command the respect of the nation. When Victoria became Queen at the age of 18, her unenviable task was to restore the moral authority of the British establishment.

Transition between the artistic cultures of the Georgian and Victorian eras, from ‘neoclassicism’ to ‘romanticism’. This was observable to some degree in all western cultures during the first half of the 19th century. Writers such as Wordsworth, Blake, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley and Bryon were mainly active during the Georgian Era, but were often dissident elements, refusing to conform to the Augustan society around them.

In the early 19th century, the dominant style of architecture was that of the Greek Revival. From the 1840s onwards gothic was the standard style for churches,

Female clothing changed drastically around the same time: dresses were no longer large and elaborate, but were simple and light in imitation of Grecian models. By the 1830s female dresses were gradually expanded and embellished, reaching the absurd extreme of the unapproachable crinoline dresses of the 1860s

It is clear that the transition between the Georgians and the Victorians has had profound consequences. The demise of the Georgian Era demonstrates how a complete set of assumptions can be undermined, and finally overthrown, from within. The battles between rationality and romanticism, moral leniency and strictness, materialism and mysticism, still affect us today. /georgian-victorian

Free Trade Feelings

Exploring works by Walter Scott, Harriet Martineau, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens and their lesser-known contemporaries, this book historicizes globalization as it traces the sense of dissolving borders and the perceived decline of national sovereignty back into the nineteenth century. Read more on: Free Trade Feelings

!851 The Crystal Palace

The Exhibition was a great triumph, both socially and financially. Aided by the expansion of the railways, six million people (a third of the country’s population then) descended on London to view the spectacular show. And, as if the exhibits were not stunning enough (and Great Britain was determined to prove its superiority with trophy displays from its colonies as well as the home-grown industrial fields of iron and steel, machinery and textiles), the vast glass structure which housed them reached an iconic status and was nicknamed The Crystal Palace.

That Palace of glass was designed by Joseph Paxton, with help from the engineers Charles Fox and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and the time from conception to completion and the opening of the show was only nine months; a remarkable achievement when considering the enormity of the structure, with the ironwork frame and glass made almost exclusively in Birmingham and Smethwick. And although Paxton had gained great expertise in the design and building of ‘greenhouses’ for other wealthy patrons, nothing before had been so large, measuring 1848 feet long and 454 feet wide, and able to house fully grown trees that were already growing in the park.

This account was given by Charlotte Bronte.

A visit to the Crystal Palace, 1851


Yesterday I went for the second time to the Crystal Palace. We remained in it about three hours, and I must say I was more struck with it on this occasion than at my first visit. It is a wonderful place – vast, strange, new and impossible to describe. Its grandeur does not consist in one thing, but in the unique assemblage of all things. Whatever human industry has created you find there, from the great compartments filled with railway engines and boilers, with mill machinery in full work, with splendid carriages of all kinds, with harness of every description, to the glass-covered and velvet-spread stands loaded with the most gorgeous work of the goldsmith and silversmith, and the carefully guarded caskets full of real diamonds and pearls worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. It may be called a bazaar or a fair, but it is such a bazaar or fair as Eastern genii might have created. It seems as if only magic could have gathered this mass of wealth from all the ends of the earth – as if none but supernatural hands could have arranged it this, with such a blaze and contrast of colours and marvellous power of effect. The multitude filling the great aisles seems ruled and subdued by some invisible influence. Amongst the thirty thousand souls that peopled it the day I was there not one loud noise was to be heard, not one irregular movement seen; the living tide rolls on quietly, with a deep hum like the sea heard from the distance.

Source: The Brontes' Life and Letters, by Clement Shorter (1907)

Nowadays the catalogue, with its steel engraved illustrations is a symbol of High Victorian Design. When the exhibition was done a surplus of £186,000 was made which today would translate as something in the region of £16,000,000. That profit went on to fund an education trust with grants given out for industrial research and, more visibly, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum – all built on ground to the south of Hyde Park and known fondly as Albertopolis. And, over all this presides the Albert Memorial, erected by Victoria to recall her husband’s legacy after his sad and premature death at the age of only 42. And what a legacy it was! The VV thinks even King Ernest would find it hard to disagree.

/from-the-archive-blog/

Victorian Hairstyle

LINKS TO VICTORIAN RESOURCES ONLINE ( As a treasure chest for me).

I was looking for information about womenwriters and found this very interesting:

LINKS TO VICTORIAN RESOURCES ONLINE

http://www.d.umn.edu/~csigler/Victorian.html

For instance I found this

•  http://jco.usfca.edu/text/eyre.html Jane Eyre: An Introduction
• http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/ Jane Eyre: Quarterly Review (December 1848)
• http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/Bronte.html O Brontë Sisters within my Breast !

What a lot of information.

Through http://www.bl.uk/pointsofview/ the 19th century in photographes,

I found

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/

The table that witnessed the creation of Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre - two of the finest novels in the English language -
Sisters Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell used the table from childhood and Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall were amongst the works produced on it.
Made from Cuban mahogany on an oak base, the table is a real writer's work-place, stained with ink spills and scarred in the centre with a large candle burn. At one end a bold letter E is carved into the surface, almost certainly the work of young Emily, whose initial can also be seen in the notebook of her poems that will be displayed on the table.
Each night after their father retired to bed, the sisters would walk around the table and discuss their writing. After the early deaths of her brother and sisters, Charlotte was unable to break the habit and sadly continued the nightly routine on her own.The table is in private ownership; it was purchased at the sale of the household effects of the parsonage after the death of Reverend Brontë in 1861 and was sold soon afterwards to the family in whose possession it has since remained. It has only once been seen outside the family when it was lent to the Brontë museum at Haworth for a short period.

Wuthering Heights official photographer

Read : Wuthering Heights official photographer

Victorians were terrified of debt because inability to pay meant one could lose everything -- even one's liberty. Ireland maintains a touching collection of Victoriana, including letter boxes, the Dublin Custom House coats of arms, and laws which prescribe prison for not repaying loans.Literary critics say Charlotte Bronte's novel 'Villette,' is really about the dangers of Victorian life, before the invention of limited liability. One commentator notes the frequent use of the words crisis, panic, dread, terror, fever, frenzy and peril in the book.The ups and downs of the financial cycle cause the heroine's family to suffer, "shocks and repulses... humiliations and desolations." Ah yes, indeed.We may be entering a more Victorian world, where people's spending will be more in line with their incomes, and exposure to debt on mortgages and purchases of expensive consumer items will be more limited. For the time being at least, they are likely to receive every encouragement in this approach from the banks.

VOORGANGERS EN TIJDGENOTEN VAN DE BRONTËS

AUGUSTAN PROSE (eind 17de-eind 18de eeuw)

In deze periode werd de aanzet gegeven tot een nieuwe literaire vorm, de novel, die in de
Victoriaanse tijd tot bloei zou komen. In deze novel nam men afstand van de fantastische en
heroïsche aspecten die tot dan toe het proza hadden gedomineerd. Men wilde komen tot een meer
realistische representatie van de wereld en de mensen die deze bevolken. De bekendste voorbeelden
van novels uit deze tijd zijn Robinson Crusoe van Daniel Defoe en Tom Jones van Henry Fielding.
In deze tijd doken ook de eerste heroines op in de Engelse literatuur. Voordien waren vrouwelijke
personages vaak randfiguren die zelf geen acties ondernamen, maar deze ondergingen. Hier worden
ze hoofdpersonages die op zoek zijn naar hun plaats in de samenleving en actief stappen
ondernemen om hun lot te beteren. Men kan echter nog niet spreken van vrijgevochten vrouwen: een
plaats zoeken in de samenleving wordt meestal ingevuld door het zoeken van een ‘favorable match’.
Enkele voorbeelden van novels met heroines: Moll Flanders en Roxana van Daniel Defoe (1660?-
1698), Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded en Clarissa van Samuel Richardson (1689-1761).

ROMANTIEK (1785-1830)
De heroine novel verdwijnt in de romantische stroming meer naar de achtergrond ten voordele van de
gothic (Frankenstein van Mary Shelley) en de historical novel (Ivanhoe van Sir Walter Scott). Enkel
Jane Austen blijft in deze tijd novels schrijven over jonge vrouwen die een geschikte partner zoeken.
Zij wordt dan ook beschouwd als anti-romantiek.
outhey (die in 1813 Poet Laureate -hofdichterwerd),
wel bekend als de 'Lake Poets' (dichters uit het Lake District). Wordsworth volgde Southey in
die functie op in 1843.

VICTORIAANSE TIJD (1830-1901)
In deze tijd kwam de strijd voor vrouwenemancipatie meer op het voorplan door onder meer het belangrijke essay The Subjection of Women door John Stuart Mill. Men ging zich afzetten tegen het
beeld van de vrouw als broze engel die beschermd moest worden van de harde realiteit. In ‘finishing
schools’ werden meisjes uit de gegoede klassen opgeleid tot poppetjes die konden borduren en
bloemschikken, maar die het denkwerk aan hun echtgenoot moesten overlaten. Dit leidde vaak tot
frustratie bij deze vrouwen die zich vaak stierlijk verveelden.
Vooraanstaande vrouwen zoals Queen Victoria en schrijfster George Eliot ijverden dan ook voor een
gelijke educatie voor vrouwen en mannen. Hun feminisme was echter gematigd. Zij waren tegen
stemrecht voor vrouwen en geloofden nog steeds dat de vrouw op de eerste plaats moeder en
echtgenote was. Verscheidene schrijfsters publiceerden autobiografische werken die uiting geven aan
deze frustraties: Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), Florence Nightingale (1820-1910).

Het Victoriaanse tijdperk was een echte bloeiperiode voor dit genre, met voorop uiteraard Charles
Dickens. Het was tevens de tijd van de heroines zoals Jane Eyre (uit Jane Eyre van Charlotte Brontë),
Dorothea Brooke (uit Middlemarch van George Eliot) en Becky Sharp (uit Vanity Fair van William
Thackeray). Naast de zusjes Brontë laten diverse andere auteurs heroïnes in hun verhalen
voorkomen, zoals Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1856), George Eliot (pseud. van Mary Ann Evans) (1819-
1880), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) en Henry James.

Kleding in het Victoriaanse tijdperk

In die tijd was alles er op gericht om de vrouwen zo klein mogelijk te laten lijken, misschien gedeeltelijk uit eerbied voor koningin Victoria, die uitzonderlijk klein van stuk was. Maar het kan ook hebben bijgedragen aan haar onderdanige positie.Naast de sociale gedragsregels, bestonden er vele voorschriften met betrekking tot de verschillende kledingstukken die de vrouw tijdens haar dagelijkse activiteiten diende te dragen.
Globaal gesproken werd de pelisse-robe ’s morgens in huis gedragen, de redingote op de wandeling en de fraaiere ronde japon bij middagvisites. De peignoir was een huiselijk kledingstuk dat enkel ‘s morgens werd gedragen, maar het was geen ochtendjas. Het woord dat er het dichtst in de buurt komt is een kamerjas.
Overdag droeg men in huis wijdvallende mouwen die driekwart lang waren. Onder de korte nauwe tailleurjasjes pasten deze natuurlijk niet, zodat men wel de zogenaamde engageantes, losse valse mouwen, droeg die van hetzelfde stof waren als het lijfje of van witte mousseline of linnen. Stroken, franjes en galons werden rijkelijk toegepast, evenals sierknopen op tailleurjasjes en vesten.

De crinoline


Van 1840 tot omstreeks 1870 werd de damesmode vooral bepaald door de crinoline. De crinoline is een steunvorm voor de wijduitstaande rokken (die toen erg in de mode waren) van de vrouwen. Hoe breder, hoe beter. Meestal werd er dan ook nog een tournure boven gedragen. Dat is een versiersel wat op het achterste kan worden vastgemaakt (zie het als een soort opgevuld half schort met allemaal versiersels, maar dan achterstevoren gedragen) waardoor het achterwerk groter leek dan normaal.
Er waren verschillende soorten crinolines. De eerste crinolines waren erg bescheiden, namelijk een met paardenhaar (crin) verstevigde onderrok. Het goedkoopst en dus het populairste was die van stalen veren. De “Thompson”-crinoline was het lichtst en dus het duurst, en werd dan ook alleen door dames gedragen die erg rijk waren. Er was ook nog een poosje het idee van een crinoline met
rubberslangen erin, die met meer of minder lucht kon worden gevuld, wijder of minder wijd kon uitstaan. Maar aangezien de rubberslangen snel lek raakten werd dat geen groot succes.
De meeste crinolines konden aan de voorkant open en dicht zodat hij makkelijk aangetrokken kon worden. Ze waren rond en ovaal, variërend in afmetingen, van redelijke omvang tot enorme wijdten.

§ 3.3 Avondkleding
De avondkleding was rijkelijk van kant en borduursel voorzien. Op de wijde rokken zaten stroken en linten, ook wel kleine, vaak moeilijk van echt te onderscheiden bloemcorsages met kunstbloemen. Men droeg ook wel avondlijfjes op een rok voor overdag. De avondjaponnen hadden een schouderdecolleté met een lage, rechte halslijn, soms middenvoor even dieper uitgesneden. Dit laatste decolleté heette een en coeur. Het decolleté was bijna altijd afgewerkt met een horizontaal geplooide strook of een berthe, een kanten kraag die van de bovenkant van het lijfje tot halverwege de mouw reikte en opgemaakt was met ruches of lint. Het lijfje liep uit in een punt en was met baleinen verstevigd. Daagse japonnen waren bij voorkeur van fijn zwart laken, merinoswol foulardzijde, organdie, gingang (gestreept katoen) of dunne mousseline, avondjaponnen van changeantzijde of fluweel. Buitenshuis werden verschillende soorten kledingstukken gedragen. De sjaal was weer terug, vaak heel groot met een brede franjerand.

§ 3.4 Rijkleding
De rijkleding van de dames was aan strenge regels verbonden. Een rijbroek van antilope leer vond men onmisbaar. Van de knie tot de voet overtrok men deze met dezelfde stof als de rij rok die eroverheen gedragen werd.
Schoenen hadden zelden een hak. Het meest werden instapschoentjes gedragen, die soms als balletschoentjes met veters of linten om de enkels gebonden werden. Ze waren van zijde of crêpe in bij de japonnen passende kleuren. Hoe smaller de voet was, hoe deftiger. Op straat werden gewoonlijk stoffen laarzen gedragen met elastieken zijkanten, maar de ongelofelijk keurige dames kwamen eigenlijk niet buiten.

Blackwood's Magazine

De kinderen Bronte waren op dit tijdschrift geabonneerd en lazen het met veel plezier. Veel van hun kennis werd hier uitgehaald.
Blackwood's Magazine was een Brits tijdschrift dat in 1817 als maandelijks verschijnend blad werd opgericht door William Blackwood, een uitgever uit Edinburgh. Blackwood begon het op de Tory's gerichte tijdschrift als tegenhanger van The Edinburgh Review, dat politiek gezien vooral was geörienteerd op de Whigs.

Het blad verscheen oorspronkelijk onder de titel 'Edinburgh Monthly Magazine' en kende aanvankelijk weinig succes, maar toen het zich onder de nieuwe redacteur John Gibson Lockhart en John Wilson onder de titel 'Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine' ging richten op sensatie, satire en scherpe essays nam het aantal lezers snel toe. Onder de vele fans stond het blad destijds bekend als Maga.
Er ontstond in 1821 een hevige controverse met het rivaliserende blad The London Magazine. Redacteur John Scott van dat blad beschuldigde Blackwood's Magazine van laster, wat zelfs leidde tot een duel, dat zou worden beslecht in Hampstead. Uitdager Lockhart verscheen echter niet tijdig ter plaatse en diens secondant Jonathan Christie ging ten slotte het duel aan. Scott raakte hierbij ernstig gewond en overleed aan de gevolgen.

Hoewel het blad rechts-geörienteerd was, publiceerde het wel het werk van vrijgevochten dichters als Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats en Samuel Taylor Coleridge. De laatste twee werden eerder in het blad overigens hevig bekritiseerd. Ook Thomas de Quincey leverde regelmatig bijdragen.

Het blad hield op te bestaan in 1980.
---------------------------------------

The House of Blackwood was a family run business, the headship of the firm and its magazine being passed on from generation to generation, until the two became almost indistinguishable. This family tradition was at first its greatest asset, but later proved more problematic, as 20th century innovations in publishing techniques, and changes in fiction, public taste and markets became insurmountable difficulties for the firm's directors. Despite the best efforts of its editors, the famed Blackwood's Magazine folded in 1980, and the firm followed soon after.
Blackwood's Magazine But the firm's literary legacy survived, for when people talk of the great authors of the English language in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, names that spring to mind include Walter Scott, George Eliot, Anthony Trollope and Joseph Conrad. Likewise, literary histories of Scottish literature inevitably include the likes of James Hogg, Thomas de Quincey, Susan Ferrier, Margaret Oliphant, and Hugh MacDiarmid. All of these authors had one thing in common: at one point or other in their literary careers, they were published by the Edinburgh based publishers William Blackwood & Sons. And many of these made their literary debuts in the world famous, monthly Blackwood's Magazine. Started in 1817, it became the flagship of the firm, a source of pride and at the same time a sampler of authors and ideas the editors believed were of importance to the reading public.

Fashion in the Victoriaanse period

There was a young and innocent Queen soon destined to set the style and trend for the aristocratic world in which she lived. Her name was Queen Victoria, and she ruled the English society for over 60 years. Queen Victoria started her reign at the tender age of eighteen. At this new beginning she started a style that affected not only the aristocratic English woman, but also all woman of the world during her time. She was simple and plain with the unique quality of style and attitude that was all her own. Queen Victoria set the fashion and style for the aristocratic English woman, defining their status and rank within the society.

During the 30 years of the early Victorian Age the style and trend which the women wore transformed from the hour glass figure, to the high waist, gradually leading to the bell shape figure with large sleeves and low cut cleavage style. The main reasons for each change was to try to somehow make comfort for a woman, yet it rarely occurred.



The corset set the tone for the shape of the woman's body. It brought the waist into incredible measurements, a record of 15 inches was reached.
The crinoline was designed to enhance the look of the dress. It allowed the skirts to flare out to great widths, enhancing the value of any woman whom wore the crinoline. The corset was basic to the hour glass look. "The hour glass look was achieved with the corset, a garment made of clothe and wire used to compress the waist to only twelve to fifteen inches, which was highly hazardous the to woman's health yet highly fashionable"(Ruhling 146). Along with the corsets the women wore crinolines, wired hoops that held the dress out, which were often a fire hazard. The crinolines' fullness forced women to have good posture and seat themselves very carefully. Otherwise, women would be considered unladylike. As Cunnington states, "The crinoline was used as a status of wealth, also the wider the hoop, the more fabric had to be used to cover it. Therefore women having enormous widths in their dresses indicated a very wealthy status in life." That was not the end to the additives of what women wore beneath their elaborate dresses. "Many women wore at least four to five petticoats, layers of skirts and cloth, on top of their crinoline to enhance their status of wealth"(Beard 254).



The bell-shaped figure was given its name because of the way the women looked when they walked down the streets of England-like a ringing bell! Changes in fashion came when the corset was readjusted and altered to the waist instead of covering the hips also. With the new altering the corset brought on the high waist figure. "The skirts were actually just raised up to start approximately six inches below the breasts"(Bosse). The skirts still had a narrow top with a broad bottom. The crinoline and petticoats were still worn.

The bell-shaped figure was based on this high-waist shape. Again the corset was worn, yet it gave no appearance of its presence. "The skirts started directly beneath the breasts and immediately began to expand from that point"(Hansen 158). The crinoline and petticoats still worn and gave width and an elaborate look. The sleeves were not attached to the dress itself but were pinned or buttoned on to the dress to give the appearance of very short arms. The sleeves were very wide at the shoulders and gradually narrowed at the wrists. "The cleavage line of the dress was very low, usually to reveal the innocent untouched flesh a young lady may have. This was not taken as an insult or digression from the viewer or the revealer"(Evans 145).

There were fabulous fabrics that were hand woven and designed. Many families had one tailor they went to to make designs for them. The fabrics of these elaborate dresses were delicate and very difficult to manufacture. In fact, some of the cloth made then do not exist now because of the time, effort, and money put into making the fabric. Some of the fabrics used were Levantine foliose (a soft, rich silk with a twilled shot of green and red or blue and gold), sultane (a mixture of silk and mohair, like fine alpaca, with alternate satin or chine stripes), satin flout (described as being as rich as velvet and as supper as muslin), Pekin point (a rich white silk painted with bouquets of flowers or foliage and with a light mixture of gold in the pattern), also Ottoman satin (rich shaded satin embroidered with flowers), and Victorian silk. To sew these rich and delicate fabrics into dresses required tedious labor.

Lace was remarkably fashionable and found on almost every dress. It would cover the entire dress, emboider the design, or trim the hems of the dress.


The bonnet
was highly fashionably because women wanted to shade and protect their fair skin from the sun when they went out.
Lace accompanied almost every style and trend in the early Victorian age. "Lace became a trend and style all its own"(Palmer). Lace was used to indicate style, class and wealth of a woman. The lace was tediously made with precision and distinction to clarify who owned the lace. Although the fabrics of the time were elaborate, lace was emphasized as the only thing that "made" the dress. The majority of day dresses, which survive from the period, were mostly made of heavy cotton. Lace was so popular in Victorian clothing women would hand make their own designs and styles of the lace.

The hairstyles of the time added distinction and sophistication. Women let their hair fall in short ringlets on either sides of their face from a center part, or they combed it over the ears straight down from a center parting. As stated by Wilcox, "The hair of the women in the 1800s was very important to their status"(134). Bonnets were also fashionable headwear. The poke bonnet
had a wide open brim projecting over the face. The jewelry also was very important to women's fashion during the 1800s. Jewelry consisted of gems and artifacts. Other accessories were shoes, shawls, and gloves.

Flat shoes with no heels were worn with lacing up the lower part of the leg. As stated by Wilcox, "Women wore the black leather shoe for everyday dress, but slippers with the Louis heel were to be had of colorful kid, thin morocco and many fabrics such as velvet, satin, brocade, and damask"(227 The Mode). Stockings were made of thick material used to keep women legs warm. They were usually fashionable and were never seen.

The shawl draped over the upper body of the woman. Usually the shawl would be large enough to cover the head, neck, shoulders, back, chest, and arms of the woman.

The shawl was almost the equivalent of a scarf today. The shawl was used with dresses, enclosing the neck and also spread over the shoulders over the wide collars. As Ruhling states in her book, "The Kashmir shawl with its oriental palm or pine design made the shawl an extremely appealing and exotic piece of apparel from the early 1800's up to about 1870"(156). Hand woven in India from the soft wool of the Tibetan goat, the shawls were terribly expensive, even by today's standards they would be expensive costing usually five hundred to five thousand dollars. They were such a status symbol some women preferred them above diamonds. Gorsline states that, "A loom woven version of the coveted and more costly Kashmir shawl was the Paisley shawl, made in Scotland. It got a real royal boost when none other than Queen Victorian draped one over her stately shoulders"(144).

The gloves were usually too small but the women all wanted the image of small delicate hands.



Fashion indicated that women should wear gloves. They were to wear tight fitting kidskin gloves that were fastened by up to one hundred tiny buttons. Much advice was given not only on buying gloves, but putting them on also. Women were advised to allow at least one half hour to squeeze each hand into the binding leather. The process was vast and intense. Women had to use great forces of pushing and pulling the hand in the glove. There was a special hook used to fasten the buttons on the gloves. Knitted gloves were worn in the morning and black silk mittens were put on the back with gloves of white silk net or white kid for dinner parties.

False hair, make-up, jewels, and fans were used to make the appearance beautiful and appealing. Jewelry was also used to show mourning and happiness. Bentley states that, "Mourning jewelry was a very important and fashionable, of gold and black enamel, dull jet, often with a coil of the hair of the 'beloved departed' cleverly inserted in the ring, brooch, or locket"(178). Queen Victoria for instance could not be parted from her bracelet that held a portrait of her beloved Albert with a lock of his hair. Human hair was not only for mourning jewelry, but also given to daughters from their mothers. Engagement rings, were usually a diamond symbolizing innocence, it was what every bride wanted to wear on their finger. Each stone of an engagement ring was represented by a meaning such as sapphires which meant immortal life, rubies represented affection, emeralds brought success in life, and pearls and opals were avoided because they were considered hard brings of ill luck.

The fan was highly recommended and requested to use. Many women used the signals and codes for communicating with gentlemen.

Make-up was used to a maximum. During this period, women wanted to cover things up. It was commonly known for women to pile the make-up on the cover all the flaws in their skin. Women wanted to achieve the look of fair white skin with colored lips. Every one could not afford make-up; therefore, the woman did not wear it or she substituted with various creams and chemicals. "Fans were more than a decorative accessory, they wore a device for reviving the more than occasional swooning bathroom dancer"(Boucher 89). Fans were considered as a flirting device. Although it is questionable how much of this flirting was actually done there were complex rules about the meaning of the position of the fan when held in the hand of a young women. If a woman fanned fast, she was conveying her independence, if she fanned slowly she was already engaged. A fan with the right hand in front of her face encouraged advances, while when done with the left it recommended retreat. An open fan meant love, while a closed one meant hate, and a half-opened fan signaled friendship. A fan that was open and shut meant, "Oh kiss me, please."

As Queen Victoria's reign reached its peak, like any other, it came to an end. She became known for her simple sense of fashion and grace. She took her turn at the spotlight then let the throne have another ruler. While she stood in the light, she let it be known that she set the fashions and style for the aristocratic English women in her society. This motivated the status and rank of these women to be known by all. The clothing may have been a little bit uncomfortable with the crinoline and layers of petticoats, and the fabrics were pretty complicated, but some are still around now like cotton and silk. Women in that period were very conscience of their figure and they all went after the feminine look of a thin waist and broad lower body. The basic observance of this period was that it dealt with a lot deception. Women had to wear certain things to make it seem to all they were frail and fragile with a petite well shaped body. Women also caked on make-up to hide blemishes. The style of the period was very distinguished, yet it started from the Queen and trickled down to all women. The dress was very elaborate, while the accessories were compliments to the women who wore them.