/r/fashionhistory
A place for historical garments, past patterns, illustrations, demonstrations, perukes, petticoats, hoops, codpieces, houppelandes, hennins, restorations and recreations from long ago.
Fashion historians, costumers and enthusiasts are welcome to celebrate some good-old-fashioned fashion.
A place for historical garments, past patterns, illustrations, demonstrations, perukes, petticoats, hoops, codpieces, houppelandes, hennins, restorations and recreations from long ago.
Fashion historians, costumers and enthusiasts are welcome to celebrate some good-old-fashioned fashion.
Like this? Check out /r/vintagefashion, /r/TheatricalCostuming and /r/HistoricalCostuming !
Interested in history, outside of the clothes? Check out The History Network on Reddit.
/r/fashionhistory
Exactly what the title said. Do you know any good books, but even some nice blogs or some easy resources to know more about 19th century fashion? Especially the later half. Maybe a blog would be better for the time being because books costs a lot, but I'm open to any suggestion. I'm very very fascinated by history of fashion but I know next to nothing about it.
Thanks in advance!
Elsa Martinelli wears a summer dress w/Norwegian straps, in black & white Ameritex Everglade cotton by Carolyn Schnurer; black bamboo bracelets by Peck & Peck.
📸Photo by Henry Clarke.
(disclaimer: I’m new to this sub, so please delete if this isn’t an okay post type!)
Do any of you have links or visual references to everyday / cold-weather / travelling clothes for women at the turn of the 19th century?
I am new to researching historical costuming and the SEO-poisoned internet means basic searches do not always come up with the most relevant or accurate results.
Otherwise good general references (web sites, university web pages, books, etc) of English fashion that include the 1800s would also be good. Thanks in advance for any help.
I'm interested in historical costuming but I'm having trouble identifying an era that would actually look flattering on my body. I'm 4' 10" (147 cm), 92 lbs (41 kg) and I have a 30" bust and a 24" waist, so my waist is somehow naturally the size of a corseted one. Hoopskirts would almost certainly look ridiculous on me because I'm so short, and gigantic puffy sleeves probably wouldn't be too flattering either. I know the trick with a lot of petite fashion is to really define the waist, so styles where the waist is cinched in a lot would probably be best and also really easy for me to pull off with my tiny Disney Princess-esque waist. I'm even considering what types of ancient styles might look best on me, like Viking age Scandinavian dresses or Minoan Greek fashion, both of which I really enjoy the look of. I don't know, if anyone has any advice for which fashion era a petite person like me should go for, I'm all ears!
I believe these to be my GGGrandparents and a decade would be most helpful!!
What is the white headdress these women are wearing? It’s a Pieter Bruegel the Elder painting from the Northern Renaissance (Dutch and Flemish). I have looked up traditional headdresses but I can’t find the exact name of this.
Hey there, does anyone have any resources/ studies/dissertations/anything about this specific topic? I'm having trouble. Thanks in advance <3
Hello, Fashion historians! I have a few questions for the corset experts out there, regarding Valerie Steele’s book (specifically the chapter “Dressed to Kill: The Medical Consequences of Corsetry”).
I’m an art history grad student and I will be giving a guest lecture on corsets for an undergrad class next month. I’ll be focusing on the myths regarding corsetry and how they continue to be perpetuated in period dramas, and I’m hoping to get some clarification before I give the presentation. I’ve been following a lot of fashion historians on youtube like Abby Cox and Nichole Rodloph, who have degrees in fashion and seem to know their stuff, as well as lots of other fashion historians who very adamantly argue that modern preconceived notions about corsets being deadly and uncomfortable are misguided. Many cite Valerie Steele to support their beliefs that corsets do not negatively impact the health of the wearers. So I’ve been reading Valerie Steele’s book The Corset: A Cultural History, and while I can see that she certainly dispels quite a few myths, I’m a little surprised by some of what is written in the chapter titled “Dressed to Kill: The Medical Consequences of the Corset.” Specifically, Steele mentions that her research found that corsetry DOES in fact reduce lung capacity and that “reports of corseted women fainting are likely to have been accurate.” She mentions that it was “especially likely to occur during physical activity, such as dancing at a ball.” This confused me a bit, because a lot of historians who cite Valerie Steele also point out that it is perfectly safe and possible to do physical activities in corsets without problems (and it’s not like there isn’t photographic evidence of women in corsets engaging in physical activities). Steele also comments that corsets, when worn over time, “weaken the back and abdominal muscles, rustling in muscle atrophy, lower-back pain, and an increased reliance on the corset.” She also says that corsets “could and probably did cause permanent rib deformations” if the person started wearing the corset at a young age (and that it was probably more common in the 18th century when children’s stays resembled adult stays). And she mentions that corsets could cause digestive problems and problems controlling urination. Most concerningly, she validates the fear that corsetry could damage the reproductive system by aggravating pre-existing medical conditions like a prolapsed uterus (which she says was common for women who had multiple pregnancies). She writes, “Women who wore tight corsets during and after pregnancy, as most did, were engaging in potentially dangerous behavior.” She says that even maternity corsets could have contributed to miscarriages by inhibiting the expansion of the uterus.
To be clear, I am not criticizing Valerie Steele, as she does also dispel a lot of myths. I’m also aware that the shape and tightness of the corset/stays differed depending on the time period and that some were more or less comfortable than others. However, I was wondering if there’s a reason so many fashion historians continue to point out that corsets were completely unharmful and perfectly comfortable and cite Valerie Steele as their source. Has Valerie Steel written more about corsets since this book? I haven’t found any followup research, but perhaps I’m looking in the wrong places. Have other researchers written articles or books contradicting any of what I mentioned above? What am I missing?
Thanks in advance for reading this long post and directing me to sources that may help clarify my confusion. I’m keeping an open mind and understand that there is nuance in all fashion history discussions. I just want to be sure I’m not presenting biased information simply because I want to believe that corsets were completely harmless as I’ve been led to believe by many historians that I admire.
This is an except from the book Flint and mirror by John Crowley:
"He didn’t dare raise his red-lashed eyes to her after he had made the courtesy that the Earl had carefully instructed him in; while they talked about him above his head in a courtly southern English he couldn’t follow, he looked at the Queen’s dress.
She seemed in fact to be wearing several. As though she were some fabulous many-walled fort, mined and breached, through the slashings and partings of her outer dress another could be seen, and where that was opened there was another, and lace beneath that. The outer wall was all jeweled, beaded with tiny seed-pearls as though with dew, worked and embroidered in many patterns of leaf, vine, flower. On her petticoat were pictured monsters of the sea, snorting sea-horses and leviathans with mouths like portcullises. And on the outer garment’s inner side, turned out to reveal them, were sewn a hundred disembodied eyes and ears. Hugh could believe that with those eyes and ears the Queen could see and hear, so that even as he looked at her clothing her clothing observed him. He raised his eyes to her white face framed in stiff lace, her hair dressed in pearls and silver."
Anyone know if there is a historical basis for what sounds like an absolutely amazing dress?