In the context of this rapidly changing world, Rachel Worth explores the ways in which the clothing of the rural working classes was represented visually in paintings and photographs and by the literary sources of documentary, autobiography and fiction, as well as by the particular pattern of survival and collection by museums of garments of rural provenance. Rachel Worth explores ways in which clothing and how it is represented throws light on wider social and cultural aspects of society, as well as how 'traditional' styles of dress, like men's smock-frocks or women's sun-bonnets, came to be replaced by 'fashion'. Her compelling study, with black & white and colour illustrations, both adds a broader dimension to the history of dress by considering it within the social and cultural context of its time and discusses how clothing enriches our understanding of the social history of the Victorian period.

In the context of this rapidly changing world, Rachel Worth explores the ways in which the clothing of the rural working classes was represented visually in paintings and photographs and by the literary sources of documentary, autobiography and fiction, as well as by the particular pattern of survival and collection by museums of garments of rural provenance. Rachel Worth explores ways in which clothing and how it is represented throws light on wider social and cultural aspects of society, as well as how 'traditional' styles of dress, like men's smock-frocks or women's sun-bonnets, came to be replaced by 'fashion'. Her compelling study, with black & white and colour illustrations, both adds a broader dimension to the history of dress by considering it within the social and cultural context of its time and discusses how clothing enriches our understanding of the social history of the Victorian period.

A delightfully illustrated history of women’s wear in Victorian England, with decade-by-decade details of the styles—and the lifestyles they represented. Victorian Fashions for Women explores British styles and clothing throughout the long reign of Queen Victoria, from the late 1830s to the first years of the twentieth century. It provides a superb overview of the dresses, hats, hairstyles, corsetry, undergarments, shoes, and boots that combined to present the prevailing styles for each decade. It reflects a variety of women—from those who had enough money to have day and evening wear and clothes for sports and outdoor activities, to those with limited income and wardrobes, to laboring folk with little more than the clothes they stood up in. All decades are illustrated with original photographs, advertisements, and contemporary magazine features from the authors’ own remarkable collections, accompanied by a knowledgeable and informative text that describes the fashions, their social history context, and influences reflected in the clothes of the time. Laid out in a clear and easy-to-follow chronological order, the key features of styles, decoration, and accoutrements will help family historians to date family photographs and provide a useful resource for students, costume historians, or anyone with a love of fashion and style to enjoy.

Vintage photographs depict girls playing dress-up in their mothers' clothes, a boy dressed in Little Lord Fauntleroy style, and scores of other representative portraits. Captions.

What was life really like in Victorian England during its transition from provincial society into modern urban power? Discover the effects of increased women's rights, technological advances, and Charles Darwin's discoveries on everyday life. This volume offers a fascinating glimpse into Victorian daily living, including women's roles; Victorian Morality; leisure; health and medicine; and life in all settings, from workhouses to country estates. This edition features an extensive guide to contemporary primary source material and further research, including information about finding authoritative sources easily on the Web. Illustrations, interactive sidebars, a chronology and glossary further illuminate the details of Victorian culture. This volume is an ideal source for students and teachers alike. Discover the effects of increased women's rights, technological advances, and Charles Darwin's discoveries on everyday life. Engaging narrative chapters explore all aspects of the Victorian experience, including: fashion, morality, courtship and mourning rituals, crime and punishment, public school requirements, legal status (marriage, divorce, inheritance, guardians, and bankruptcy), sports like croquet and foxhunting, and the importance of religion.

Offering a unique anthology of primary texts, this sourcebook opens a window on the writing that shaped and mirrored Victorian fashion, taking us from corsets to crinolines, dandies to decadent 'New Women'. A user-friendly collection that provides a solid grounding in the fashion history of the nineteenth century, it brings together for the first time sources that trace the evolution of dress and the social, cultural and political discourses that influenced it. Featuring seminal writings by authors and commentators such as Oscar Wilde, Thorstein Veblen and Sarah Stickney Ellis, plus satirical cartoons, illustrations and fashion plates from key sources such as Punch magazine, it combines primary texts and illustrations with accessible explanatory notes to offer a wide-ranging overview of the period for both students and researchers. Each section opens with an introduction that examines the major trends in Victorian clothing – and the material, economic, scientific and cultural forces driving those trends – situating the texts in the pressing social anxieties and pleasures of the time. Exploring both menswear and womenswear, and key topics such as corsetry, dress reform and mourning, Mitchell extends her analysis into interdisciplinary fields including gender studies and literature, and guides the reader with a timeline, glossary and further readings.

English landscape watercolor painting, a perfect marriage of genre and medium, entered a lively period of experimentation in style and content during the second half of the nineteenth century, with rich and diverse results. Through all the changes of style and technique and all the debates over the appropriate use of the medium, it was watercolor's ability to convey the timeless truth and reality of the natural world that mattered to artists, critics, and audiences. British watercolors of the Victorian period continued to observe an essential humility before nature; they remain fresh and compellingly immediate because they derived in the first place from the artists' heartfelt communion with the elements of nature. Victorian Landscape Watercolors begins with a consideration of the continuing influence of the great generation who earlier in the century, during the extraordinary parallel rise of watercolor and landscape painting, had established the landscape watercolor as a major British contribution to the arts. The second chapter examines the role of the landscape watercolor in the aesthetic thought of John Ruskin, whose critical voice played a dominant role in shaping that art. The third chapter looks at the place of landscape within the watercolor societies and its development as it appeared in their annual exhibitions. The final chapter deals with the tug of new and old, foreign and native in the later Victorian period. The book also features 126 watercolors, from public and private collections in America and England, all reproduced in full color and accompanied by individual commentaries. Among the 76 artists represented are David Cox, Sr. and Jr., Walter Crane, William HolmanHunt, Edward Lear, Samuel Palmer, James Mallord William Turner, James McNeill Whistler, and Ruskin himself, along with dozens of lesser-known masters of the medium. Victorian Landscape Watercolors is published in conjunction with the first exhibition to survey this period of this particularly British contribution to the arts; the exhibition, organized by the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, will also be seen at the Cleveland Museum of Art and in Birmingham, England.