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The first purpose of Clothes . . . was not warmth or decency, but ornament. . . . Warmth he [the primitive human being] found in the toils of the chase; or amid dried leaves, in his hollow tree, in his bark shed, or natural grotto: but for Decoration he must have Clothes. — Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, Book I, Chapter 5.
General
- Sitemaps for each decade
- Fashion and Costume, 1850-1900: A Summary Overview
- From Dressmaker to Dress designer and the Coming of Haute Couture
- Men's and Women's Costume, 1850-1900: The Cultural Context
- Victorian fashion and the growth of sporting activities, 1850-1900
- What men and women in mourning wore
- What People Wore to the Great Exhibition of 1851
- Anti-Fashion, or Victorian Attempts at Reform of Male and female Dress
- Aesthetic Dress and the Rational Dress Society
- Amelia Bloomer, Originator of the New Dress (1851)
- Fabrics and Color
- Church vestments
- Herbert Spencer on Politics and Dress
- Trollope on the ugliness of Victorian male dress
- Punch cartoons
- Cosmetics (sitemap)
Women
- Cambric Muslin Peignoirs, 1844
- Women's Undergarments in Victorian England, 1850-1900
- Victorian Women's Fashion, 1850-1900: Dress Bodices, Jackets, and Blouses
- Victorian Women's Fashion, 1850-1870: the Skirt
- Victorian Women's Fashion, 1870-1900: the Skirt, Blouse, and Dress
- Paris Fashions, October 1851
- Hairstyles
- Hats and Headwear
- Footwear
- Gloves
- Accessories and Jewelry in Victorian Women's Fashion, 1850-1900
- Woman's Dress for Presentation at Court (1904)
Men
- Victorian Men's Fashions, 1850-1900: Undergarments
- Shirts and Neckties
- Coats and Jackets
- Waistcoats and Sweaters
- Trousers
- Hair
- Hats
- Footwear
- Outerwear
- Men's dress in the 1860s among the Artists and Art Critics
- Informal dress for upper- and middle-class Englishmen in the 1860s and '70s
- Men's and Wormen's formal dress in the 1870s
- Informal dress for upper- and middle-class Englishmen in the 1860s and '80s
- Men's informal sporting dress, late 1880s and '90s
- Men's formal daytime dress, 1860s
- Men's and women's formal daytime dress, 1880s
- Men's and women's formal daytime dress, 1901
- Men's and women's formal daytime dress, 1901 (II)
- Men's and Women's informal dress — A late-Victorian or Edwardian hunting party
- Dons at Oxbridge
Laboring Classes
- What Victorian Agricultural Workers and Other Countrymen Wore
- Country people, 1880s
- Prosperous farmer
- The Countryman's Smock
- Country women, 1860s
- Manchester Operative (Factory Worker), 1842
- What urban working-class men wore in the 1860s
- Carpenters
- Men in a dyeworks, 1860s and '70s
- Railway porters, 1880s
- Railway stationmaster, 1900
- What Navvies (Construction Workers) Wore
- Sailors and fisherman
- Housemaids
Children
- What Victorian Children Wore
- Children's dress, 1860s
- Well-to-do children, 1870s
- Girls' dress in the 1860s and '70s [Alice in Wonderland]
- The Greenaway Look
- Farm children, 1860s
Decade by Decade
Bibliography
Reviews of books and exhibitions
- Sitemap
- Victorian Constraints: A review of Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear — an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2016-2017
- “Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- A Review of Joy Spanabel Emery's A History of the Paper Pattern Industry: The home Dressmaking Fashion Revolution
- Commodifying the Straw Man — A Review of Brent Shannon's The Cut of His Coat
- "Rational Fashion": A Review of Don Chapman's
Related Web Resources
- Pauline Weston Thomas's Fashion-Era (detailed materials on Victorian and Edwardian dress)
- Fashion Through Time
Last modified 31 October 2021