Historical Fancy Dress

Category: Victorian

  • 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.

  • For elderly ladies

    (This author pulled no punches with regard to dressing your age; no sexy costumes for older women, though at least there are a few suggestions that are not just some sort of old woman.)

    For ELDERLY LADIES the following costumes are suitable: –Mrs. Balchriste; Griselda Oldbuck, Dowager of Brionne, My Grandmother, a Lady of the Olden Times, Night, Puritan, some Vanduke dresses, Quakeress, Mrs. Primrose, wife of the Vicar of Wakefield, Peacock, the Duchess of Orleans, a Maltese Faldette, Mother Hubbard, Mother Shipton, a Sorceress, a Gallician Matron, and some Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds’s dresses.

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

  • Rosina (Barber of Seville)

    (Another costume from the opera, this time from Rossini.)

    (Barbiere de Seville). Spanish dress of cerise satin and black lace; black velvet senorita jacket; black lace mantilla.

    FD-senorita jacket Reconstruction note: the senorita jacket pictured at left is from the fashion section of the April, 1867, issue of Arthur’s Home Magazine. Though this is twenty years earlier than the description above, but the style is probably similar. The description given with the illustration is:

    Breakfast jacket of scarlet cashmere, ornamented upon the breast, and epaulets with butterflies with spread wings cut out in velvet and embroidered with gold and red and blue silk. There is a slight spring at the back of the waist, which deepens into a point, ornamented with butterfly to match.

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

  • Jumping Joan

    (Here’s a cute little girl’s costume from a Mother Goose nursery rhyme.)

    Suitable for a Child. Tall and pointed cap, pink and white stripes carried round; soft pink silk dress with honeycomb yoke, a skipping-rope round waist; sleeves with puff at shoulder, slashed puffs at elbow, cuffs falling over the hand.

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

    The rhyme:

    Here am I, little jumping Joan,
    When nobody’s with me
    I’m always alone.

  • Harliquina

    Armstrong-Harliquina (I have other descriptions of this costume, but none with such a good illustration.  I love the combination of the bustle and the bicorn hat.  It might be faster to do the diamonds as appliqué rather than patchwork.)

    Pierrette or Harliquina (for she is called by either name) has become a very favourite character at fancy balls of late, and the costume is decidedly piquante, and has a great air of individuality.  The lady in the picture is dressed in pink and green, but the dress can also be made in red and black, white and silver, pink and blue, and in many other combinations of colour.  The bodice and petticoat are made in diamond-shaped pieces of shot silk, alternately pink and Chatreuse green, and the gay little cloak which hangs from one shoulder, has a border of diamonds to correspond.  The top-skirt is formed of a drapery of pale green mousseline chiffon, and the two-cornered Directoire hat has a large rosette made of the two colours.  Long black gloves appear in the picture, but these would be in better taste if they matched the dress.

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

  • Canary Bird

    (Another easy costume featuring a stuffed bird on the shoulder!)

    Dress of yellow plush or satin, with canaries on the shoulder, the bird’s head forming the cap. Sometimes the yellow satin is embroidered in pearls, and canaries are scattered all over the dress.

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

  • Grenadier

    FD-Holt-1887-Grenadier (An eighteenth-century military costume for a boy, though there's no particular reason an adult couldn't wear something similar.  Click the image to enlarge)

    (1760) High white gaiters buttoned to the knee; blue coat turned back with red; red cuffs; white waistcoat and breeches; red and white pointed cap; sword; hair in pigtail.

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

  • Brunhilda and Kriemhilda

    (My fabulous costume-and-dance friend Eowyn requested the description of a Walküre (Valkyrie) costume. This was the closest I could find for her — Wagnerian characters in medieval gowns. I don’t know the operas well enough to know whether the outfits would be particular to some specific scene.

    (Niebelslungen Lied). Suitable for two sisters. They wear rich gold stuffs made in Burgundian fashion of the thirteenth century. Brunhilda would have under-dress of brocade, over-dress of gold tissue caught up at the side; low square bodice bordered with jewels, jewelled stomacher, silver girdle; sleeves puffed at elbow and shoulder; gold crown, hair in coil entwined with pearls. Kriemhilda: under-skirt of rich stuff, bordered with bands of gold; upper-dress of embroidered cloth-of-gold, bordered with ermine; low bodice much jewelled in front, long sleeves lined ith ermine, and bound with gold, tight sleeves to wrist; hair on shoulders, surmounted by a crown.

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

  • On shoes, and the powdering of hair

    (A brief mention of the problem of matching shoes to costumes, with a digression on powdered hair.  See the previous On the necessity of gloves for further advice.  "Short" dresses are in fact mid-calf to ankle-length, not miniskirts.)

    To be properly chaussé and ganté are difficulties at fancy balls. With short dresses the prettiest and most fashionable shoes are worn, either blak with coloured heel and bows, or coloured shoes to match the dress, and embroidered, the stockings being of plain colour or stripes. With the Vivandière dress Wellington boots are best.

    To avoid glaring inconsistencies, it is well to remember that powder was introduced into England in James I.'s reign, though not very generally worn. It attained the height of its glory in the Georgian period, and in 1795 fell a victim to the tax raised by Pitt on hair-powder; those that wore it subsequently were called guinea-pigs, on account of the guinea tax. Periwigs were first mentioned in 1529. High-heeled shoes were not heard of till Elizabeth's reign.

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

  • Photography

    McCord-Photography(It's always wonderful to find a well-documented photograph of someone in a fancy dress outfit.  Here's one from the era of the hoop skirt; how appropriate it is to find a photograph of Photography!  Click the image for a larger version.)

    Left: Miss Stevenson, as "Photography", Montréal, QC, 1865 by William Notman.  Image © McCord Museum.

    The photograph is part of an online exhibition of photographs of fancy dress costumes from balls and skating parties; the museum's description of it states:

    "Miss Stevenson attended a fancy dress ball in Montreal in 1865 at the Theatre Royal, given by the officers of the garrison. She dressed as "Photography", complete with a camera on her head and photographs adorning her dress, shoes, bracelets and fan. Miss Stevenson copied this dress from a printed fashion plate, which frequently offered images of fancy dress costumes. The almost identical costume in the Parisian plate is bright green."

    While I do not, alas, have the fashion plate referred to, I do have two nearly-identical descriptions of a photography costume, with details very similar to those shown in the photograph, from the second and fifth editions of a fancy dress manual from the 1880s.  They confirm the suggestion above that the dress would be green.  Presumably were the costume to be made in the style of the 1880s the short-for-its-era skirt would take the shape of a bustle rather than a hoop.  The "lunette" referred to in the descriptions is a half-moon shape rather than the camera used by Miss Stevenson.

    (1) A green silk dress trimmed with tulle of the same shade, round the skirt, nestling in the bouillonnés, a row of photographs, a scarf of the silk draped across the skirt, with medallion photographs at intervals, all bordered with green gimp, the bertha of the low bodice fastened at the front, back, and on the shoulders with them.  A cap in the form of a lunette, with cartes de visites, and a long green veil depending.

    (2) A green silk dress trimmed with tulle of the same shade; round the skirt, nestling in the bouillonnés a row of photographs; a scarf of the silk draped across the skirt, with medallion photographs at intervals, all bordered with green galon; the bertha of the low bodice fastened at the front, back, and on the shoulders with them; a cap in the form of a lunette, with cartes-de-visite, and a long green veil depending.

    Sources:

    (1) Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 2nd Edition, Illustrated.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1880.

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