The Role Of Clothing In The Victorian Era

Fashion constantly changes, its always altered one way or another. Clothing always has a reason to change, particularly, attire from a different time era. Either to reveal character and personal tastes, to show status or the time period when they were born. A prime example of such fashion being the Victorian Era of clothing. Garments in this time period ranged in many styles as the years pass, all of which unique in its own way. Men, women, and children specifically.
To begin with, women's appearance in the Victorian era was constantly being modified. For example, hair was worn either long or in a bun, particularly a style known as a chignon. At the time of the 1840s, ringlets of curls were common. In the 1870s, hair was let long with loose
According to “History of Children’s Costume” by Marion Sichel, Girls would be seen commonly wearing long skirts with short sleeves (Sichel pg. 39). Skirts became shorter, apart from party dresses, with higher necklines and longer sleeves. Also, they wore pinafores and aprons to keep their dresses clean and wore slips underneath, their skirts became fuller and sleeves were altered in shape. Moreover, young girls wore stiff corsets that were pulled very tightly to create a thin waist, skirts have around 10 stiff petticoats underneath. (Sichel pg. 39-40) Age could have been depicted by the length of the skirt, older girls had longer skirts while vice versa for younger ones. Little girls would wear less exaggerated garments along with a bonnet that tied under the chin with a ribbon (Sichel pg. 40-43). Both boys and girls wore dresses for a few years, they wore full-skirted frocks, petticoats, and drawers until about three years old (“Boys 1860s Fashions.” para. 1). When boys were too young for suits and too old for dresses, boys would wear a play costume which was a blouse and loose trousers. In the 1860s, boys wore knickerbockers, a wide leg pants fastened below the knee, worn with a vest and jacket. The jacket was cut away at the front, had a single fastening at the neck, which exposed the button vest (“Boys 1860s Fashions.” para. 3-4). Growing boys would wear a vested suit and frock coat mimicking their father’s. From ten to eleven years, boys would wear long trousers and a jacket open at the waist to show their vest. (“Boys 1860s Fashions.” para. 5) A common outfit that boys would wear is sailor themed clothes. Young boys would grow into more boyish looking frocks with box pleats. The outfit had a V-shaped front with an embroidered shield and belt closed by a buckle or buttons. Materials would be cloth, wool, linen, and pique (“Victorian Clothing