Historical Fancy Dress

Category: Mythology

  • Proserpine

    (Here's a costume from Greek mythology that doesn't follow the classic style, instead using a witchy black-and-red color scheme and adding wing sleeves and a ruff!)

    Scarlet robe with wing sleeves lined with black,and a full, wide ruff of scarlet lined with black high about the neck.  A large poppy for a head-dress, and poppies on the toes of the black slippers; red stockings.

    Source:
    Masquerade and Carnival.  New York: The Butterick Publishing Company, 1892.

    Proserpine is the Romanized Persephone, daughter of Demeter (Ceres) and queen of the underworld as the unwilling bride of Hades (Pluto).  The poppies are symbolic of sleep, death, and resurrection and thus particularly appropriate for Proserpine, whose annual descent into the land of death represents the sleep of the earth during winter and whose return brings springtime to the land.

  • Brownie

    FD-Butterick-Brownie (A brownie costume for a boy or a group of boys that's more creepy than charming.)

    This costume is of brown cloth with yellow bands, buttons and cap trimming.  Yellow stockings and brown pointed slippers.  Where a number of "Brownies" are to appear, the costume may be made of khaki, duck or like material, and may be of any combination of colors, bright hues being preferred.

    Source:
    Masquerades, Tableaux and Drills.  New York: The Butterick Publishing Company, 1906.

  • A Classic Party

    (Here's a specific fancy dress event theme that is basically a genteel Edwardian toga party, despite the author's efforts to depict it as educational.)

    Some of the most successful fancy-dress parties as to costume, and most fascinating as to the amusement afforded, have been arranged by limitations as to books, eras, countries, etc., which have been mentioned by the hostess upon the cards of invitation. For instance, she invites her friends and acquaintances to…a classic party, the latter including both Greeks and Romans, a few of the most presentable of the gods and goddesses and so on, down to the characters portrayed in Hawthorne's "Marble Faun."

    Both the Greek and Roman costumes of the free men and women are a most interesting study well worth giving a party for, if only for that; while following such a research, one's memory of classic times is refreshed, if not newly stored with historic facts, regarding tastes and habits that have influenced all the succeeding generations of civilized peoples. Gentlemen and ladies who carry themselves with dignity can wear these vestments with charming and novel effects, that contrast curiously with the appointments of a modern drawing-room.

    Source:
    Masquerades, Tableaux and Drills.  New York: The Butterick Publishing Company, 1906.

  • Mermaid

    (Perhaps in the interests of having something one can actually dance — and walk — in, this description of a mermaid costume blithely ignores the fish-tail aspect!)

    Dress with low bodice of eau de Nile silk, covered with drapery of sea green tulle, with a profusion of white corals, shells, marine grass, flowers, and crystallised foam; the left shoulder of the dress ornamented with a cluster of diamonds; the right shoulder and ceinture with silvery iridescent gems; flowing hair crowned with corals, pearls, and diamonds; interspersed with pendants of seagrass.

    Source:
    Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 5th Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1887.

  • Classic

    FD-Holt-1887-Classic (This is my absolute favorite of all the pseudo-historical Victorian fancy dress costumes: a "classical" Grecian style…draped over a bustle and corset!  "Not rigidly correct" is quite the understatement!)

    This simple rendering of a classic gown is suited to a young girl of slender figure, and is not rigidly correct as the costume of ancient days. It can be made in soft cashmere, muslin, nun's veiling, crêpe, crêpe de Chine, or Liberty silk, worked in the Greek-key pattern with narrow Russian gold braid.

    Source: Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 5th Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1887.

  • Will-o’-the-Wisp

    (Here are very similar descriptions for a woman’s version and a girl’s version of the same outfit. The electric stars would have been very modern and fashionable, less than a decade after the invention of the light bulb.)

    Women:
    Flowing hair falling over black fashionably-made evening dress; tiny lantern carried in hand; star of electric light in the centre of the forehead.

    Girls:
    Black lantern in hand, hair flowing; black tulle dress with iridescent beads; star over the forehead of electric light.

    Source: Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 5th Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1887.

  • Eumenides

    (This is a fantastic and bloodthirsty costume, with a snaky theme and a classic Greek chiton rather than the usual gown of the era.  It may well still have been worn over a corset and bustle, though!)

    Red or black veils, snakes entwined about bare arms, buskins like a huntress, rough chiton of brown, or black, or blood-coloured, girt with skins of snakes; other serpents bind their waists, and their garments are embroidered with snakes' eyes.

    Source: Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 5th Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1887.

  • Water Spirit

    (Unfortunately, a couple of my books contain hundreds of descriptions that have no accompanying illustrations.  Lots of room for imagination thinking about this description combined with the bustle silhouette!)

    Dress of sea-green tulle, trimmed with seaweeds, pearl shells, and coral.  Hair loose and flowing, crowned with a wreath of sea-weed and coral.  Ornaments of pearl shells.

    Source: Armstrong, Lucie.  The Ball-Room Guide.  London and New York: Frederick Warne & Co., c1880s.