Historical Fancy Dress

Tag: Victorian Fancy Dress

  • A Victorian Fancy Dress Ball, New Haven, Connecticut (Saturday, March 24, 2012)

    Enjoying the descriptions and illustrations of fancy dress costumes posted here?  Now's your chance to try it for yourself!

    On Saturday, March 24th, in New Haven, Connecticut, there will be a fancy dress ball in the style of the 1880s, featuring live music, Victorian dancing, refreshments made from historical recipes, and a chance to bring fancy dress costumes to life!

    The ball will be held from 8:00 to 11:30pm at beautiful Pratt Hall, less than a block from the New Haven Green and only a few blocks from the historic Yale University campus.  The dancing will be precepted by dance historian and teacher Susan de Guardiola (author of the Capering & KIckery dance history blog and owner of Historical Fancy Dress) with live music by the noted dance trio Spare Parts, heard recently on the soundtrack of the film Bright Star.  The dances will be a typical Victorian mix of couple dances (waltz, polka, schottische, galop) and set dances (contras, quadrilles).  All set dances will be taught during the evening, and there will be a workshop from 3:00 to 5:00pm the afternoon of the ball to help people wanting to learn the couple dances.  There will also be a procession of costumes and

    Fancy dress based on the styles of the 1880s is strongly encouraged, and this blog is your resource for costume ideas.  Since this is a fancy dress ball rather than a masquerade, masks are not necessary.  To preserve the beautiful floor, please make sure to have clean dance shoes or indoor-only shoes to change into at the hall so as not to track dirt or grit into the ballroom.

    The ball is strictly limited to 80 people due to the size of the hall.  Advance registration ($30 per person, or $20 for ages 13-21) is recommended.  At-the-door prices are $10 higher and admission will be available only if space permits.  Younger children may attend with their parents, and are expected to be strictly supervised throughout and withdrawn from the ballroom if they become too tired/fussy to display polite behavior.

    A hotel block at the nearby New Haven Hotel has been reserved at a discount rate; reservations must be made by March 7th to be guaranteed this rate.

    Full information and registration (by mail or Paypal) are available at the Fancy Dress Ball website.

  • A Masquerade Dance Card, 1900

    DanceCard-YMPS-1900-Outside DanceCard-YMPS-1900-Inside

    Here's an interesting bit of fancy dress ephemera: an actual dance card from a masquerade ball given in Wisconsin on February 10, 1900.  Scans of the cover and inside are at left; click to enlarge.

    This is a lady's card, with men's names filled in for the first half of the ball.  The ball — their Third Annual Masquerade — was sposnored by the Y.M.P.S. in a town whose name is unreadable due to damage to the card but which I would guess to be Westboro.  The red cord attached at the top was to hold a pencil for filling in names.

    The dance mix on the card is a typical late Victorian mix, primarily couple dances (waltz, polka, schottische, two-step) and quadrilles.  Interestingly, the Grand March, typically the first dance (perhaps after a series of tableaux vivants), is placed ninth instead.  I place the Grand March in the middle of the ball at my own Fancy Dress Ball because I do it as a costume-announcing parade, so I want to wait until everyone is there, but don't want to delay the start of the ball.  Perhaps this group did it for similar reasons.

    The opening dance is a quadrille, which might have been or followed a special Fancy Quadrille, in which a group of dancers with costumes matching a particular theme would perform.

    I discussed this card from a dance perspective a while back at my companion dance history blog, Capering & KIckery.

     

     

  • Suez Canal

    (A marvel of Victorian engineering, the Suez Canal opened in 1869 and affected both trade patterns and politics, with the resultant ease of access for Europeans to parts of Africa enabling a new wave of colonization efforts during the 1880s.  Apparently its impact was such that even a decade after its opening it inspired a fancy dress costume design!)

    The description is identical across three editions of the same manual:

    Long flowing robe of cloth-of-gold, with waves of blue satin bordered with pearls, underskirt of red satin embroidered in Egyptian designs.  A gold key at the girdle; Egyptian head-dress of pearls, turquoise, and diamonds; girdle of roses and lilies.

    Sources:
    Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 2nd Edition, Illustrated.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1880.
    Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 5th Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1887.
    Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, Sixth Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1896.

    The 1896 edition of Holt may be found online at the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.

  • Elizabethan Serving Maid

    (Here's one of those costumes fondly considered "historical" — an Elizabethan maid wearing an 18th-century mobcap, 19th-century corsetry, a hint of a bustle, and a very upper-class ruff.)

    FD-Holt-1887-ServingMaid SERVING MAID (Elizabethan Period). Short fawn-colored stuff gown, made with pointed bodice; tight sleeves with stuffed epaulettes; ruff at throat; muslin cap; bag hanging at side.

    The illustration (click to enlarge) is taken from the 1887 edition of Holt's Fancy Dresses Described and displays a hint of the bustle shape of the era in the pleated fullness at the back of the skirt.  The identical description appears in the 1896 edition.

    Sources:
    Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 5th Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1887.
    Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, Sixth Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1896.

  • 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.

  • Richelieu

    Richelieu (A historical costume for the gentleman who doesn't care to expose his legs in tights!)

    A robe of cardinal-red goods made in domino style and trimmed with ermine, and worn over a lace gown.  A red mitre is worn, and a scepter is carried.

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

    A description and illustration of a domino-style robe were recently posted; the men's version would be similar to the women's as illustrated.

    As may be seen in the painting at left, Armand Jean du Plessis,
    Cardinal de Richelieu (1585-1642) doesn't seem to have actually worn either a lace gown or a mitre, though at least some 19th-century cardinals had much lacier apparel.

  • Freemason (Female)

    (This costume description predates the Co-Freemasonry movement that began on the European continent in the 1880s.  It is probably meant as a futuristic fantasy costume, rather like the Footwoman of the Future.)

    FREEMASON, FEMALE.  Black velvet dress; white satin Watteau sacque, trimmed with swansdown; swansdown ruff at throat; hair powdered; quaint velvet hood, studded with pearls and Masonic emblems; a Master Mason's apron and collar of office, with pendant gauntlets and Masonic jewels; clock at girdle.

    Other than the earliest edition not capitalizing "Mason" or "Masonic", the descriptions are identical throughout across sixteen years and three editions of a single manual.

    The costume is a poudré (powdered) one; see With Regard to Powdering for instructions on how to powder the hair for such costumes.

    MrsAldworth Oddly enough, there was a female Freemason in the eighteenth century, Elizabeth Aldworth, whose portrait may be seen at left.  Her clothing is considerably less elaborate than the swansdown-trimmed outfit described above, and her hair is not powdered, but the apron is present, and she is pointing to a Masonic symbol in the book next to her.

     

    Sources:
    Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 2nd Edition, Illustrated.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1880.
    Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 5th Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1887.
    Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, Sixth Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1896.

    The 1896 edition of Holt may be found online at the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.

  • Opening with tableaux

    (How to open a fancy dress ball conducted in a large public space: with tableaux vivants or "living pictures": groups of costumed attendees posed in scenes.)

        Before touching upon costumes, it may be well to add the information concerning the general programme of a masquerade or fancy ball which is given either by private individuals or societies, in a public ballroom or hall.  At a private house, unless there is a large ballroom, the plan can scarcely be followed, though it is the regular custom at the entertainments first mentioned.

        A large fancy ball is usually opened with tableaux.  For this purpose a stage or platform at one end of the room is necessary.  Temporary steps should lead from the floor to the stage at its center.  As soon as a sufficient number of guests have arrived to conduct the tableaux as planned, the entertainment begins.  The subjects for the tableaux should be comic in character, and may consist of "hits on the times," or upon local politics or institutions; or they may be arranged from some familiar humorous picture or series of pictures.  This matter must be left to the host and hostess of a private ball or to the committee of arrangements for a society ball, who will select the subjects and decide upon the number of tableaux to be given.  The last tableaux must include all the maskers who have taken part in the tableaux, and also the host and hostess, or at a society ball the president of the society and his lady; and it must be so arranged that at the end of the scene those on the stage, headed by the host and hostess or the president and his lady, will fall into line of march and move down the steps to the floor, where all the other guests are waiting, and also join in the grand march which generally opens every ball.  If the first dance is to be a waltz, the guests should at the close of the march, be standing so that the line will form a sort of spiral.  But if the first dance is to be a square dance, then the couples should be arranged along the sides of the room, ready to fall into sets at the first bars of the music. 

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

    The University of Chicago has published a short scholarly article discussing the tableau vivant in relation to art, and includes both the Oxford English Dictionary definition:  “a representation of a personage, character, scene, incident, etc., or of a well-known painting or statue, by one person or a group of persons in suitable costumes and attitudes, silent and motionless" and a quote from the popular Godey’s Magazine and Lady’s Book describing tableaux vivant as one of the most popular amusements of the time, “…. engendering a love for and appreciation of art.”

    TableauJoandArc1910 A Danish dramaturge named Marie has written a fascinating little article regarding the use of the tableau vivant in literature by such well-known authors as Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Brontë, and Edith Wharton. 

    The illustration at left of a 1910 tableau (though not from a fancy dress ball) is borrowed from her blog, At the Lighthouse, and depicts the wounded Joan of Arc surrounded by English soldiers, a typical historical theme.

    Click the image for a larger view.

  • Poodle

    (For ladies who want to dress up as a dog, complete with puppy ears.  One really wishes they had included an illustration for this one!)

    Skirt of black tulle covered with small ruches to represent the curly coat; corselet bodice of black velvet.  Silver bracelet on the right arm; a collar of red satin ribbon.  The hair frizzed; a couple of black velvet ears lined with pink silk at the side.

    Source:
    Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, Sixth Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1896.

    The 1896 edition of Holt may be found online at the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.

  • Fairy Godmother

    (This costume is intended for a young girl and is a simplified version of women's "fairy godmother" costumes.)

    Skirt of amber cashmere or veiling.  Apron of white silk trimmed round with the eyes from peacock plumes.  Pointed body of satin with a basque skirt cut in points.  The body is trimmed with strips of white silk tied across and fastened in bows.  Hanging sleeves, cut round in points.  Cloak of green cashmere or satin.  Deep, white linen collar.  Sugar-loaf hat trimmed with a peacock plume.

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

    A sugarloaf hat is a tall, pointed hat — the classic "witch" style.