Costumerism

vintagegal:

Victorian costumes c. 1880’s

omgthatdress:

Charles Fredrick Worth fancy dress costume ca. 1870 via The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“This particular pair of Turkish trousers combined with its elaborately embroidered fashionable bodice, is appropriate for a fancy dress ball and indicates the lengths that people would go to for this type of costume event. Owning an expensive Worth fancy dress ball ensemble would have been the epitome of distinction and extravagance.”

omgthatdress:

(fancy dress costume ca. 1880-1882 via Manchester City Galleries)

blacksalmiak:

Abazin woman; Abkhazia, 1897.

defunctfashion:

Charles Frederick Worth | c. 1895

Detail of the odd, but beautiful bodice work

(via regencyera) Portrait of Madame de Verninac, 1799, by Jacques-Louis David.

An example of the strongly Classical-influenced continental European high fashion of the late 1790’s and early 1800’s.

(via malebeautyinart) Two Strings To Her Bow, by John Pettie, 1882 (“Two strings to one’s bow” is a traditional English proverb, and also puns on “beau” here.)

This Victorian “genre” painting depicts a Regency (early 19th-century) young lady delighted at being the focus of attention of two rival “beaux” (handsome potential suitors), and even seeming to enjoy playing them off against each other. It would probably have struck a somewhat false note (with respect to the prevailing standards of 1882) for a Victorian artist to portray a contemporary respectable Victorian young lady uninhibitedly rejoicing in playing such a game (unless the illustration was didactically disapproving); but by moving it back to the Regency, it all somehow became quaint and historical, and the artist was freed from any perceived necessity to offer a moral lesson. (In Pettie’s painting, the bodice of her dress and the sharp vertical creases spaced widely around the hem are not really authentic Regency styles.)