Going Out In Style

Did You Know?.....The Victorian lady's outerwear always had a practical purpose - to protect her from

cold in winter and to add another layer for modesty and decoration during the warmer seasons. But whenever there was a conflict between function and fashion, style invariably triumphed. And during the 64 years of Queen Victoria's reign, the style of garments for the outdoors changed as much as any other articles of clothing, their forms evolving to suit the shape of each period's dominant silhouette.

Even something as basic as the shawl, which "Godey's Lady's Book" called "as picturesque a thing as a lady can wear," went through many different forms. At the beginning of the century, the scarf (in which the length is more than double the width) had reigned over Empire-style fashions.

But between 1837, when Victoria's rule began, and about 1870, when their popularity began to decline, shawls were among the most fashionable of the outdoor coverings. As skirts increased in size, so did shawls. Squares and double squares, cut or folded to form a triangle, gradually grew from a yard and a half in 1830 to 64 inches in the 1840's. Over the huge crinoline skirts of the 1850's and 60's, a lady would have worn a shawl two yards square, a double square of 64 by 128 inches, or one even larger.

The most prized shawls were intricately woven patterns originally made in India exclusively for the foreign market. Later versions were woven in the Scottish town of Paisley, from which their characteristic pattern took its name. Early examples were cream colored; at first, only their borders carried the design of curvy teardrop motifs, but eventually the pattern spread over the whole of the shawl.

In 1847, the "Lady's Newspaper" reported, "Shawls were never more in favor than during the present winter...To say which is the favorite color would be impossible, for the ground is completely covered by a rich mass of intricate and varied arabesques, presenting an effect perfectly oriental."

Woven shawls were expensive, so cheaper imitations were printed on wool or cotton; as long as they carried the typical pattern, they were called "paisley" shawls, wherever they happened to be made. Not all printed shawls were paisley and not all were inexpensive; some, made of gauze-weave silk, had patterns in rich jewel tones and were luxuriously sized at five feet by 10 feet.

In the cooler months something less purely decorative was required, and the number of choices was dazzling, their lengths and shapes limited only by the dictates of fashion and the shapes of the gowns underneath.

At the beginning of Victoria's reign, cloaks were worn. The true cloak was sleeveless, all enveloping, and could be either long enough to cover the dress beneath it, or three quarter length; the shorter version of the cloak was the cape. The full-length fitted coat of the Regency era had passed out of fashion, but it would eventually return, its sleeves and body molded to the shape of the dress is covered; its shorter version was the jacket.

Between the cloak and the cape, the coat and the jacket, were a simply dizzying array of garments for which there are no exact modern counter-parts. They fell under the general heading of "mantles," and might be full-length, three-quarter-length, half-length or shorter. Often they were ornamented with elaborate sleeves, flounces and yards of trimming.

Even their names were exotic. Among them were the "Marion," a sort of cape made up of rows of long, petal-shaped lozenges of fabric. The "Antoinette" combined elements of the cape, jacket and shawl. The "Mantilla" was not a Spanish lady's headgear, but a long cape-like garment, cut to give the arms more freedom. The "Saragossa" was dressy, shawl-shaped evening cape of the 1850's, which according to "Godey's" was "characterized by the hood and the trimming" and adorned with quilling, a form of embroidery that "adds much beauty to the garment."

Adding to the confusion, ladies' magazines were constantly coming up with new names and changing older ones, so that a three-quarter-length mantle with capelike sleeves and fringed trim might be called a "visite", "paletot'", or a "pardessus" one year, the next, it might be given a new name and its old one applied to another article of clothing.

As with fashion itself, however, we can discern a few particularly important outlines in each decade. In the 1840's, coats were out, cloaks were in. Capes and mantles of different shapes became increasingly more fashionable. Jackets, worn rarely in the 1840's, appeared more often in the 1850's and were one of the mainstays of fashion in the 1860's.

The reason for this change can be traced to the shape of the gown worn underneath. A cloak was a voluminous garment; for extra warmth, it might be quilted, or have an additional cape or deep collar over its upper half. As skirts got bigger, the amount of material required to cover them with a cloak became correspondingly greater.

By the time crinolines had reached their most extreme - taking up so much room that one New York trolley company charged ladies twice as much as men because of additional space they required - a cloak big enough to cover them in a fabric heavy enough to provide warmth, would have been too heavy to war comfortably.

So, as skirts got Bigger, jackets became ever more fashionable. It's interesting that while women's fashions were ultra-feminine, with huge skirts and tiny waists, jackets often took their cue from military uniforms. "Why do ladies affect gentlemanly attire....why do they not leave to the sterner sex the paletots and pocketed jackets with large buttons?" asked "Queen" magazine in 1862. "From Garibaldi they took his shirt, from the fierce Zouave his jacket. "The Zouave, a very short jacket with an open front, complemented full-skirted fashions between 1859 and 1865. It was often trimmed with braid and worn over a full-sleeved white Garibaldi shirt, named after the Italian patriot, which buttoned up the front and had bands at the shoulder.

A wide range of cover-ups known as mantles were worn in the 1870's. They were usually trimmed with fringe or beadwork; in 1879 the "Ladies' Treasury" reported, "Every article for outdoor wear is beaded." Fur had always been used as an accent for outdoor garments.

Now the fashion for coats and jackets made entirely of fur was beginning. "The rage of the season...is for a sealskin jacket trimmed with otter or beaver"said "Queen."

During the 1880's, bustles grew in size and depth, culminating in the preposterous "tea table" form of the late 80's, so called because the bustle formed a projection so large and firm that one could supposedly set a teacup on it without spilling a drop of liquid. Over these costumes,women wore pleated mantles, long capes or, more rarely, coats. Jackets were cut with fitted backs and usually ended just above the bustle. Short capes, heavily decorated with beads, were popular for evening.

Once the bustle morphed into the hourglass fashions of the Gay Nineties, the most common outer garments of the decade were short, full, circular capes. Trimmed with feathers, fur or beading, capes were worn as evening wraps; plainer versions were worn by day. For travel and sports there were tweed capes, often lined with brightly colored plaids. Fitted coats and jackets with huge sleeves to cover the enormous "Giibson Girl" sleeves of the period were also worn for both day and evening.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the fashions being worn as Queen Victoria's reign drew to an end was that they were more democratic and practical than those of the past. Women of every class could afforda plain straw boater or tam o'shanter and a comfortable, mass-produced jacket over a crisp white shirt-waist--all perfect for bicycling, which gave women new freedom and mobility.

As a new century dawned, fashions reflected the fact that women were going out in the world in every sense and that they were changing- on the inside, as well as on the outside.

Written By: Ellen Paige
This Article Originally appeared in VICTORIAN DECORATING MAGAZINE, Issue #40