Inventing the Victorians (2001)
Victorian fashion consists of the various fashions and trends in clothing in British culture that emerged and developed in the United Kingdom and the British Empire throughout the Victorian era, roughly from the 1830s through 1900. The period saw many changes in fashion, including changes in styles, fashion technology and methods of distribution. Various movements in architecture, literature, and the decorative and visual arts as well as a changing perception of gender roles also influenced fashion. During Queen Victoria's reign, England enjoyed a period of economic and political growth along with technological advancement. Mass production of sewing machines for home use in the 1850s as well as the advent of synthetic dyes introduced major changes in fashion. Clothing could be made more quickly and cheaply. Benefitting from the Industrial Revolution, fashion changed more frequently, with more fundamental differences than it had in prior centuries. (The print, right, shows a remarkable diversity of styles for one century of dresses.) The styles of Elizabethan England, in contrast, changed much less extremely over the course of a century. Advancement in literacy and printing and…
- Published
- 2001
- Pages
- 264
