Costume History Test 3

romantic thru 1890

Significance?

Queen Victoria starts the trend of white wedding dresses

Reasons why the romantic period is called the romantic period?

Literature, music, arts and an emphasis on emotion, sentiment and feeling.

• Waistline slightly lower than Empire
• Skirt slightly Cone or Bell-shaped
• Hemlines close to ground, shoes visible
• Wide necklines, showing shoulders
• Shoulders slop downwards from neck
• Sleeves width moves from
shoulder/upper arm to elbow
• Hair UP in elaborate top-knot with
dangling side curls.

Romantic Period fashion for women

• Lost most color in Jackets –
Typically Neutrals only: Black,
Navy, Grey, Brown, Camel
• Pants usually lighter than jackets
• Some color in waistcoats
• Silhouette mimicked the Female
hourglass silhouette
• Sometimes corsets and padding
• Tailcoats and Frockcoats
• Long Trousers

Romantic Period fashion for men

Flounces

Cage Crinoline

• Belief that layers of petticoats were
cumbersome and impractical
• Amelia Bloomer, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, and Elizabeth Smith Miller
and other pioneers of women’s rights
• Based on “Turkish Trousers” see in
European Sanitariums
• The look was heavily criticized and did
not gain widespread popularity

Dress reform

Bloomer costume

Three types of coats for men

Frock coat, Cutaway coat, Sack coat

What is this called and why is it different

Sack Coat, it doesn’t have a waist seam

what is the significance of the sack coat

it became the modern day suit coat

Frock Coat

Cutaway coat

The concept of having to different bodices that go with the same skirt, one bodice for day and one bodice for evening.

crinoline era

Dual bodices

• Not Much Change from
Romantic
• Slightly less feminine silhouette
• 3-Piece Suits:
• Stocks/Cravats

Crinoline Era Fashion for Men

• Fullness of the Bell-shaped skirt created with multiple layered petticoats
• CAGE CRINOLINE or “hoopskirt” replaces this in 1856

• Skirts layered with FLOUNCES
• Special fabrics printed with borders for flounces
• Sleeve Fullness drops from shoulder/elbow to Wrists
• Skirts often made with two bodices, one for day and one for evening

Crinoline Era Fashion for Women

The silhouettes of the Bustle eras

1st bustle, Cuirass, 2nd bustle

what is this called

bustle or lobster tail

• Matching 3-piece suits in Neutral Colors
• 3-4 Buttons on Jackets
• Single or Double Breasted Jackets or Vests
• Close (high) Notched or Peaked Lapel
• Straight Trousers
• White Shirts
• Silk Ties: Bowtie, Ascot, 4-in-Hand
• Hats: Bowler/Derby or Hamburg for Day and Top Hat for Evening

Bustle Fashion for Men

• Side view of Skirt shape is similar to end of Crinoline
• Front view of Skirt is slightly cone- shaped
• Waistline between Empire and “natural” – highest of the bustle era
• Bodice typically trimmed, open necklines more common than Crinoline or 2nd Bustle.
• Trains were common/expected
• Hair often worn up with cascade down the neck.

1st bustle

• Bodice extends down over the hips – no ”waistline”
• Bustle fullness is all at the back and low on the thighs/at knees.
• “Single Trouser” because the skirts became so narrow.
• Trains expected. – controversy begins over trailing skirts being un-ladylike.
• Style adopted mostly by the young and slender-figured.

Curiass

• Waistline lowers to “natural” waist.
• Bustle fullness concentrated at high back - shelf - like, then a straighter drop than 1st B.
• Trains were rare, only seen on formal gowns.
• Bodices often closing at the front.
• Higher collars, fewer open necklines for daywear.
• More simplistic bodices with ornate skirt drapery: “Plain above/Fancy below”
• Less lace and fussy trimmings.
• Hair typically worn all up.

2nd Bustle

•Bustle Structure removed
•Skirts Simplify in construction and decoration – nearly cone shaped
•Hourglass Silhouette
•Waistline at natural waist.
• Sleeves grew to huge proportions at shoulder and upper arm until ‘98.
•Leg of mutton sleeves were one popular style, resembling a lamb shank.

1890’s

Ready made blouses

Shirtwaist

the availability of the shirtwaist made the shirtwaist and skirt combo the ideal dress for the working woman

significance of the shirtwaist

suits for women were off-the-rack and ready-to-wear, had some homage to menswear, but remained feminine.

Made by a tailor

Tailor-made

extreme fullness in the shoulders that abruptly stoped in 1898

Leg of Mutton Sleeves