At the
beginning of the Victorian period women wore dresses with corsets underneath.
The main purpose of a corset was to raise and shape the breast, clench in the
waist and support the back. These were worn under dresses and unlike the
earlier metal corsets, corsets in the 19th century were more
comfortable to wear. Anyway onto crinolines. Crinolines were very popular
amongst women in the early mid 1800’s. A crinoline was originally a taut fabric
with a weft of horse-hair and a warp of cotton or linen thread. Below is an
illustration of an early crinoline which is round in shape making the skirt of
the dress appear very wide. There were many problems with these structures,
such as if I woman did not place her petticoats in a certain way when she sat
down the crinoline would spring up in her face. This would both have been
embarrassing but also humorous. This sketch reveals the hidden impracticalities
of a crinoline on one side of the picture. It looks like a rigid net, almost as
though it’s a device used to trap a woman. To me this represents how women were
trapped in society. In the Victorian period there were many rules and
regulations women were expected to abide by, their rights were very limited.
They were expected to bring up their children and provide their husbands with
clean, presentable homes. So that side of the picture shows the limiting, often
uncomfortable lives women in this time period led. The other half of the sketch
shows the luxurious garment that hides the impracticalities of a crinoline,
perhaps symbolizing how on the outside a woman’s life appears glamorous and
enjoyable, but concealed underneath is something quite limiting and
uncomfortable. This illustration is from ‘Punch’ a British magazine of humour and satire. (Satire is a genre of literature, a common feature of it is sarcasm
or irony.) Punch magazine was known for ridiculing crinolines.
_ CRINOLINE;.A REAL SOCIAL EVIL.
THE
Daily News-in an article suggested by therecent deaths resulting
from the prevailing fashionamong ladies of wearing extended
crinolines-strongly
denounces
this "real social evil "kiss me- quick' bonnets are
declared by our physicians to bethe cause of the great increase of
maladies of the headsand eyes-the rheumatism, the neuralgic pains,
thedecaying teeth, the inflamed eyes, yet the
bonnets arenothing to crinoline, which has become
"responsible for more deaths than any other fashion
ever caused" During these five years, says the News, " we have done our best to be patient under an evil which we hoped would be
short lived. We have had no com-fort in social meetings, because
no dinner table and no ballroom, no box or
stall at the theatre, no carriage, and no boat, could accommodate both our families and ourselves. We have found it difficult and disagreeable to walk with our wives and daughters on pavements,and in lanes and
country footpaths, made for people more naturally dressed. We have
seen the choicest flowers in our gardens, and the most cherished plants in our greenhouses cut off by the hoop We have paid a
fare and a half each for wife and daughters in
travelling by coach in rural districts,and have lost all our
pleasure on board steam boats,from the anxiety of watching
lest any of our party should sweep a child over into the lake or
river. Our wardrobes afford no room for our clothes,
because the women of the family want more space than they
can get. For five years we have not had room to
turn ourselves
round in our own homes.
This article
from The Guardian expresses the
difficulties a woman faced when wearing a crinoline. ‘...yet bonnets are
nothing to crinoline, which has become responsible for more deaths than any
other fashion...’ this shows how crinolines were not just uncomfortable to wear
they actually caused fatalities. The title of this article ‘A REAL SOCIAL EVIL’
shows the hatred towards crinolines. Not only were women affected by them, but
others around them were too. ‘We have found it difficult and disagreeable to
walk with our wives and daughters...’ this again emphasises the terrible
affects crinolines had on everyone as this piece of writing is not even written
by a woman.
Later into
the mid 1800’s crinolines began to change in shape. Rather than having a wide,
round, dome-shape, the sides and front became smaller and narrower and it was
the back of the crinoline that stayed voluminous. This crinoline was referred
to as a crinolette. The image below shows how the crinoline changed over the
time period, the back of the crinoline extended which was called a ‘bustle.’ A
‘bustle’ was a type of frame work which was used to enhance the back of a
lady’s dress.
So now I’m
pretty certain everyone has a good idea about what a crinoline is and the
difficulties men and women in the 1800’s experienced when they were at the
height of fashion. Moving on, I’m going to look at the dissimilarities and
similarities in clothing between the different social classes. During my
research I found out that wealthier women wore corsets and crinolines, they
often had to be dressed by a maid as these items were difficult to put on by
oneself. The poorer women often had to wear second hand clothes and their
clothes would be more practical and less extravagant. However saying this Mary Barton actually provided a
different insight into the type of clothes poorer women wore during the 19th
century. Mary Barton was a dressmaker and for a short while spent her time
making dresses for women who I assume could afford them. Mary herself was quite
poor but took care with her appearance ‘So she put on her pretty new blue
merino, made tight to her throat, her little linen collar and linen cuffs...’ (33) I researched what a merino dress would
look like and I found this, it’s a high collared dress. As there is no picture
of what Mary was wearing it is hard to decipher from Gaskell’s writing if the dress
was plain and simple. However the pre-modifier ‘pretty’ and ‘new’ suggests it
was a nice, new dress. This could then perhaps propose although she was poor,
as a dress maker she could have made it herself.
I found a couple of
references in Wuthering Heights that
supported my research on what wealthier women wore. When Catherine Earnshaw
stays with The Linton’s a wealthy family, she arrives home wearing beautiful
clothes. ‘...and there shone beneath, a grand plaid silk frock, white trousers,
and burnished shoes...’ (53) The description Emily Brontë displays emphasizes
the rich, extravagance of the clothing. The metaphor ‘shone beneath’ shows the
housekeeper’s shock at the difference in her appearance. This supports my
research about how richer women wore very beautiful garments in comparison to
the poor who had to just settle for whatever they could afford or anything that
was passed down to them.
This is what a typical wealthy woman
would have worn in the 19th century. A well fitted dress with
petticoats draped over a very wide crinoline. Not only does the dress suggest
that the woman in this picture is wealthy the setting and her pose does as
well.
This is what a poorer woman would have
been subjected to wearing. You can see the difference. This woman is wearing no
fine materials such as silk or lace and she is not wearing a crinoline which
suggests her poor status. The fact she is cleaning a shoe in this picture again
displays her low status in society as it was common for poor women to have to
earn a living to support her family, whereas a wealthy woman would not have been
situated to that.
Works cited
·
Gaskell Elizabeth, Mary Barton. London: Wordsworth
Classics, 2012. Print
·
Brontë, Emily, and Pauline Nestor. Wuthering
Heights. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.
·
"Damsels in Regress." Damsels
in Regress. N.p., n.d. Web.
06 Dec. 2013.
I like the comparison you gave on the picture of both the wealthy/poor woman.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting the way you talked about crinolines, especially as I had read it after the lecture where they were mentioned. I did not realise that they would have been so dangerous before reading this.
ReplyDelete