1870s in fashion
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1870s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a gradual return to a narrow silhouette after the full-skirted fashions of the 1850s and 1860s.
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[edit] Women's fashions
[edit] Overview
By 1870, fullness in the skirt had moved to the rear, where elaborate draping was held in place by tapes and supported by a bustle. This fashion required an underskirt, which was heavily trimmed with pleats, ruching, and frills. This fashion was short-lived (though the bustle would return again in the mid-1880s), and was succeeded by a tight-fitting silhouette with fullness as low as the knees: the cuirass bodice, a form-fitting, long-waisted, boned bodice that reached below the hips, and the princess sheath dress.
Sleeves of day dresses were narrow throughout the period, with a tendency to flare slightly at the wrist early on.
Evening dresses had low necklines and very short, off-the-shoulder sleeves, and were worn with short (later mid-length) gloves. Other characteristic fashions included a velvet ribbon tied high around the neck and trailing behind for evening (the origin of the modern choker necklace).
[edit] Tea gowns and artistic dress
Under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and other artistic reformers, the "anti-fashion" for Artistic dress with its "medieval" details and uncorseted lines continued through the 1870s. Newly fashionable tea gowns, an informal fashion for entertaining at home, combined Pre-Raphaelite influences with the loose sack-back styles of the eighteenth century <ref>At Home at Tea Time: Tea Gowns for Distinction and Comfort, 1870-1920, Kent State University Museum Exhibit, April to August 1997, Anne Bissonnette, Curator</ref>.
[edit] Hairstyles and headgear
In keeping with the vertical emphasis, hair was pulled back at the sides and worn in a high knot or cluster of ringlets, often with a fringe (bangs) over the forehead. Bonnets were smaller to allow for the elaborately piled hairstyles and resembled hats except for their ribbons tied under the chin. Smallish hats, some with veils, were perched on top of the head, and brimmed straw hats were worn for outdoor wear in summer.
[edit] Style gallery
1 - 1870 |
2 - 1872-3 |
3 - 1874 |
4 - c. 1874 |
5 - 1874 |
6 - 1875-6 |
7 - c.1875 |
8 - c.1877 |
- Walking dress of 1870 has a tiered and ruffled skirt back.
- Artistic dress of the early 1870s. Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland by Whistler.
- Jennie Jerome photographed in 1874, the year of her marriage to Lord Randolph Churchill. She wears a newly-fashionable bodice tailored like a man's jacket (the forerunner of the cuirasse bodice). Her tall hat-like bonnet has a pouf of veiling, and she carries a muff.
- Outdoor dresses of 1874 feature overskirts caught up with buckled ribbons. Jacket-bodices (very like the one worn by Jennie Jerome) have cuffs and high necklines. Small straw hats with flat crowns and long ribbons (similar to men's boaters) are worn tipped forward.
- Backview of a gown of 1874 shows the draping of the overskirt and the slight train on the underskirt. France.
- French evening gown is festooned with flowers and is worn with mid-length white gloves and a black neck ribbon. The high-knotted hairstyle is typical of the mid-1870s.
- Day dress of c. 1875 has a trailing overskirt and is trimmed with a profusion of ruffles and ribbons. Hair is braided into a crown high on the head.
- Semi-sheer gowns of c. 1877 show back fullness beginning at hip-level rather than the waist as in 1874-5. The tight, princess-line dress on the right fits smoothly to the body from the shoulders to the lower hips.
[edit] Caricature gallery
1 - late 1870s |
2 - 1871 |
3 -1878 |
4 - 1876 |
- Cartoon "Veto" by George du Maurier from Punch, satirizing the tight dress styles of the late 1870's.
- An extreme class contrast: "Young lady of fashion, 1871" vs. "London Dairywoman".
- Cartoon by George du Maurier from Punch, May 25th 1878, satirizing both impractical women's fashions and men's formal military uniforms.
- From the Danish Punch, satirizing the general fashion in 1876
[edit] Men's fashion
Innovations in men's fashion of the 1870s included the acceptance of patterned or figured fabrics for shirts and the general replacement of neckties tied in bow knots with the four-in-hand and later the Ascot tie.
[edit] Coats and trousers
Frock coats remained fashionable, but new shorter versions arose, distinguished from the sack coat by a waist seam. Waistcoats (U.S. vests) were generally cut straight across the front and had collars and lapels, but collarless waistcoats were also worn.
Three-piece suits consisting of a high-buttoned sack coat with matching waistcoat and trousers, called ditto suits or (UK) lounge suits, grew in popularity; the sack coat might be cutaway so that only the top button could be fastened.
The cutaway morning coat was still worn for formal day occasions in Europe and major cities elsewhere. Formal evening dress remained a dark tail coat and trousers. The coat now fastened lower on the chest and had wider lapels. A new fashion was a dark rather than white waistcoat. Evening wear was worn with a white bow tie and a shirt with the new winged collar.
Full-length trousers were worn for most occasions; tweed or woollen breeches were worn for hunting and hiking.
Topcoats had wide lapels and deep cuffs, and often featured contrasting velvet collars. Furlined full-length overcoats were luxury items in the coldest climates.
[edit] Shirts and neckties
The points of high upstanding shirt collars were increasingly pressed into "wings".
Necktie fashions included the four-in-hand and, toward the end of the decade, the Ascot tie, a tie with wide wings and a narrow neckband, fastened with a jewel or stickpin. Ties knotted in a bow remained a conservative fashion, and a white bowtie was required with formal evening wear.
A narrow ribbon tie was an alternative for tropical climates, and was increasingly worn elsewhere, especially in the Americas.
[edit] Accessories
Top hats remained a requirement for upper class formal wear; bowlers and soft felt hats in a variety of shapes were worn for more casual occasions, and flat straw boaters were worn for yachting and other nautical pastimes.
[edit] Style gallery
1 - 1870s |
2 - 1872 |
3- 1872 |
4 - 1875 |
5 - 1876 |
6 - 1879 |
7 - 1879 |
8 - 1879 |
- 1870s photo of President Rutherford B. Hayes. His coat and shawl-collared vest or waistcoat have covered buttons. Note functional buttonholes all the way up his coat lapel.
- Gentleman in a railway carriage wears a dust-colored coat, trousers, and collar-less waistcoat with a dark red necktie. He wears a fur-lined overcoat and tan gloves. Britain, 1872.
- Plate from The Gazette of Fashion shows a fur-lined overcoat (left) and double-breasted topcoat (right) with braid trim and decorative topstitching, 1872. Checked trousers were quite fashionable.
- Photographer Mathew Brady wears a coat with braid trim on the collar and lapels over a matching waistcoat. His turned-down collar is worn over a four-in-hand necktie. 1875.
- Major-General The Hon. James MacDonald is drawn by James Tissot in a slightly fitted, double-breasted topcoat with a diagonally positioned breast pocket and a contrasting collar. His shirt collar is pressed into flat wings and is worn with a wide, dark tie. He wears a top hat and gloves. 1876.
- 1879 photo of American lawman Bat Masterson wearing a three-piece suit and a bowler hat. His cutaway sack coat has a high front closure and is worn buttoned only at the top, over a vest or waistcoat cut straight across at the waist and decorated with a prominent watch chain.
- Vanity Fair sketch of 1879 shows Sir Albert Abdallah David Sassoon in "morning dress" (formal daywear): grey trousers, dark cutaway coat, white waistcoat, wing-collared shirt and dark tie.
- British statesman William Gladstone wears conservative clothing; his tall collar is still upstanding, and he wears his tie in a bow knot. 1879.
[edit] Necktie gallery
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1873 portraits of members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario illustrate the variety of fashionable neckwear (and facial hair).
[edit] Children's fashion
Very small girls wore their skirts just below knee-length. Skirts were longer as girls grew up until they reached floor length at coming-out (in their later teens). Visible pantalettes were no longer fashionable.
1870 fashion plate |
Summer dress with sash, 1872-73 |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
<references/>
- Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion 2: Englishwomen's Dresses and Their Construction C.1860-1940, Wace 1966, Macmillan 1972. Revised metric edition, Drama Books 1977. ISBN 0-89676-027-8
- Ashelford, Jane: The Art of Dress: Clothing and Society 1500-1914, Abrams, 1996. ISBN 0-8109-6317-5
- Goldthorpe, Caroline: From Queen to Empress: Victorian Dress 1837-1877, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, ISBN 0-87099-535-9
- Payne, Blanche: History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century, Harper & Row, 1965. No ISBN for this edition; ASIN B0006BMNFS
- Steele, Valerie: Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, Oxford University Press, 1988; ISBN 0-19-504465-7
[edit] External links
- History of 1870s bustles
- Plates from Peterson's Magazine 1870
- Plates from Peterson's Magazine 1875
- Plates from Peterson's Magazine - 1877
- Victorian Women's fashion: 1870s
- Victorian Women's Fashion, 1850-1900: Hairstyles
- 1870s Men's Fashions - circa 1870 Men's Fashion Photos with Annotations
- From Reforming Fashion, 1850-1914: Politics, Health, and Art, Ohio State University :
| Preceded by: 1860s | History of Western Fashion 1870s | Followed by: 1880s |
