Victorian Clothing:The Dress in The First and Second Bustle Periods

Fashionable women's dress in the era of the 1870's and 1880's, while looking quite modest to modern eyes, was viewed as unashamedly erotic in it's own day. The bustle, the cornerstone on which women's dress depended, focused the majority of the decoration and clothing focus on a woman's backside, and emphasized the movement of that body part to heroic proportions.

The dress of the first bustle period (1870's) is noted for the lightness of it's material and decoration, swathing the lower reaches of a woman's body in numerous ruffles and pleats, often in light colors using the new and vibrant aniline dyes.

Late in this decade (1878-79) was the "Fishtail" style, where the lower part of the skirt was tight, and ended in a train.

The second bustle period (the 1880's) is heavier, with decoration more resembling upholstery style. Colors get more Jewel-toned and velvets, heavy satins and brocades replace the taffetas and cottons of the 1870's. Surface decoration is often of passementarie or jet beads, giving the whole ensemble a more mature flavor.

Men's Dress

Men's dress in this era continues in it's general dullness but begins to be enlivened with sportswear, an area that continues to provide the most intriguing variants of men's dress.

Dress during the 1870's and 1880's came more and more under the influence of the Rational Dress Movement and the Aesthetic Movement . Dress reform from artists, feminists and socialists provided a continuous counterpoint to the more frivolous dress of fashionable women, and the more tedious dress of fashionable men.

DRESS REFORM MOVEMENT 1850-1914

Dress reformers o f the Aesthetic movement such as Oscar Wilde promoted jewel-toned velvet suits with breeches for men, but only found a lasting audience among mothers who dressed small boys in "Little Lord Fauntleroy" suits in this style. Caricaturists such as George du Maurier simultaneously lampooned the Aesthetic dress even as they spread it's influence. The Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience spread the Aesthetic style to America, with costumes from Liberty Co. where it was transformed in the following decades into the Arts and Crafts Movement. Women's aesthetic dress, with it's semi medieval lines and uncorseted waists were transformed by popular taste into the Teagown, a fashionable lady's at home garment.
Rational dress advocates like George Bernard Shaw tried to popularize Jaeger combination suits (which resembled woolen long johns), but were laughed off the streets. Dr Jaeger's more conservative ensembles of wool knickers and a Norfolk jacket however were accepted as men's sportswear even among the fashionable.