Victoriana

I adore Victorian costume so where did it all begin………………

As a child, I watched The Forsythe Saga –a Victorian epic tale (or in modern parlance a generously starched soap opera) on BBC television.  It gripped the nation with its storyline of the ruthless Soames, the beautiful Irene and the kindly Jolyon.

However, it was not the story or the characters that interested me, it was the dresses.  I was six years old and enthralled by the gorgeous gowns the ladies wore.  If I was enthralled by the outer clothes, I was mesmerized by a scene where a maid was dressing one of the main female characters.  The underwear while very pretty seemed –even to a six year old- complicated and cumbersome.  I had never seen a corset or a bustle before and could not work out why one appeared designed to make the waist smaller while the other apparently had the opposite purpose of making the backside seem enormous. If only, I had read Sexual Psychology rather than the Secret Seven or Famous Five I would have known but the local library had placed all the good stuff on the top shelf out of the reach of innocent (!) minds.

Anyway, it was that scene that triggered my thoughts pathways in a life changing way.  I wanted one of those divine dresses and the wonderfully elaborate underthings that went with it. For some reason, Santa never delivered!

Over the years, there were many more opportunities to see, on television, examples of the various fashion that characterised the Victorian Era. Perhaps the two most distinctive aspects were the voluminous crinoline hoop (designed by the engineers of Napoleon III to stimulate the silk industry) and the bustle (clearly designed by a Freudian to stimulate the sexual focus of the male brain).

Those television dramas always had leading ladies in magnificent period costumes.  Elizabeth in The Onedin Line and Glencora in The Pallisers were my favourite. Eventually, my adolescent mind began to understand that these women were not restricted by their clothes but liberated by them.  They used the mystique of what lay beneath the hooped skirt and the sexual symbolism of the bustled derriere to accentuate their sexuality to get what they wanted in what was ostensibly a man’s world. I would soon discover that the arch proponent of this approach was a certain Miss Scarlett O’Hara (late of Tara).  

My admiration of these master manipulators also caused me to reflect that I was drawn to strong rather than weak female characters.  I wanted to be one too so call me Lady Pamela!

To conclude….life really is strange, full of twists and turns and corsets and petticoats.  As a child, little did I know as I laced up my football boots that one day I would be lacing up my corsets, instead of pulling up my no nonsense football shorts I would be drawing up my frilled and embroidered pantalettes and instead of chasing wildly after a football I would delicately lift the front hem of my hooped skirt so as not to trip as I glided gracefully across the floor.

And finally, for the record, I have a Diploma in Costume History…….

Hooped and Petticoated

Day Dress!