This months Fashion Friday brings an excellent video from Katelyn Kearns' YouTube Podcast channel:
One Woman is Twice Two Soldiers
Entitled "Living History vs. Costuming and Why It is Important" this video is a great discussion on the differences.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
This subject has come up a lot lately as we approach an active summer season.
Presenting Isabella's video about what you can do in a corset and why the current discussions need a bit more context and information.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
Check the video out on YouTube
For this month's Fashion Friday we have an interesting discussion of mending and making do.
Unless you were fabulously wealthy you had to make sure your clothes lasted aloooong time.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
This month's Book Tuesday also works for Fashion Friday!
This is a wonderful collection of PHOTOS of Victorian and Edwardian Fashions
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey
(Dover Fashion and Costumes)
by Alison Gernsheim
Since the invention of photography there has not been a history of fashion completely illustrated by photographs — until this one. Photography historian Alison Gernsheim first studied Victorian and Edwardian fashion in order to be able to date photographs in her collection. Of course the photos soon proved to be the best of all fashion plates — authentic, detailed, as decorative and charming as top fashion illustration. When united with identifications and descriptions of the chief costume articles, and a commentary that includes childhood memories of the period, the resulting history is doubly indispensable — equally useful and delightful to serious and casual readers.
The invention of photography preceded that of the crinoline by about a decade. Pre-crinoline bonnets, stovepipe hats, and deep décolletage are featured in the first of these 235 illustrations — including a beautiful 1840 daguerreotype portrait of a lady that is the earliest study of its kind extant. From 1855 to the 1870s the crinoline gave shape (whether barrel, bell, teapot, or otherwise) to English women, and their shapes fill many of these full and half-page photos. English men went beardless in top hats and frock coats; as in other eras, the sporting wear of the previous generation became acceptable morning and evening town attire. Styles and accoutrements came and went — moustaches, straw hats, bustles and bodice line, petticoats, corsets, shawls and falsies, flounces, ruffles, lace, and materials — satin, silk, velvet, woolen underwear, full-length sable, and osprey feathers. Many of the models for these fashions were already fashionable enough — Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Lillie Langtry, Winston Churchill, many archdukes, duchesses, counts, princes, and Queen Victoria herself. Photographers are identified where possible, and include Nadar, Lewis Carroll, and the Downeys. Every photograph is captioned and annotated.
This video from Asta Darling answers the perennial question...
Were bright colours even a thing back then?
For our first Fashion Friday of 2025 here is a fantastic video by historian Ruth Goodman from YouTube.
Lots of info on daily life for the different classes in Victorian England.
While only a bit is about "Fashion" per se there is a tremendous amount of good info on daily living here. Always keep in mind that this is where many people in the West came from and they would have brought many of these patterns of life with them.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
This month a fascinating video from Nicole Rudolph on YouTube.
Travel clothes
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
This month we have an outstanding video from the Living History Demonstrations playlist by Katelyn Kearns on YouTube.
"How to Lace Yourself in a Corset"
Lots of good info here.
Check out all the videos in this list at the link above.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
This month we delve into the "nitty gritty" of keeping all those fancy, and not so fancy, clothes clean.
This video by Bernadette Banner on YouTube has some interesting info.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
This video from Yesterday Today on FB shows people getting off the train at the Henley Regatta in July of 1898.
A wonderful glimpse into the Upper Crust on their way to a see and be seen event!
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
This month we have a fascinating video about Victorian Corsetry.
From Abby Cox on YouTube.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
For this month's Fashion Friday a lovely video from Asta Darling on FaceBook.
A young nurse getting dressed for work in 1890.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
Here is another Fashion Friday video for the gentlemen.
This collection of Mid Victorian portraits is fascinating.
The AI effects in the early part of the video are frankly a bit creepy to me, but overall this is a great collection of "formal" looks.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
Today we feature a delightful "unboxing video" from the Antique Menswear YouTube channel.
The channel has a ton of interesting information well worth checking out.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
This month we have some good fashion tips from the Moose Jaw Times of 1897.
Found at the Time Travellers Rabbit Hole on FB which is definitely worth checking out!
Oh and beware that "French effect" <shudder>.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
We hope everyone had a great New Years!
For this month's Fashion Friday we a have video by Prior Attire of getting dressed in a Second Bustle era dress.
Note she is doing it all herself no maid required, upper middle and upper class ladies would have maids of course, but most modern ladies don't!
Here is a picture of Agnes Macdonald and John A. on their first trip across Canada on the new CPR showing Mrs Macdonald in such a dress.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
Watch the video at YouTube by clicking the title below.
This month as winter starts to bite we have something for the Gentlemen.
From the awesome Prior Attire on YouTube.
Enjoy
Stay Warm
The Victorian Society of Alberta
One of the must have undergarments of Victorian and Edwardian times was the Corset.
These are essential not only for creating the required fashionable silhouette but also for support. Ladies used them in all walks of life every day and not everyone had the luxury of a maid or helper to get laced up!
Today we have two videos on Corsets.
The first video is by Prior Attire and shows an example of getting into a Victorian corset unaided.
The second is a great video discussing the pros and cons of wearing a Victorian corset by a lady who wears one nearly every day!
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
A question I am often asked is what colours are there in the photos?
So for this month's Fashion Friday we present two images and a video to keep in mind when looking at historic photographs from our period.
Clothing, buildings, uniforms etc are all shades of grey of course. However, unlike modern Black and White photos (using a system known as Panchromatic) the original photographic systems did not react to all colours the same way!
These two images give you a good idea of what colours look like in the original photos.
Note the comparison with normal Black and White in the center of the top image and the right of the bottom.
Also keep in mind that most early tintype and glass plate photos are mirror images so they are backwards from what one would expect.
A good example of how the colours don't always match up with what you would expect is this famous shot from the American Civil War of George Armstrong Custer and his friend who was a Confederate soldier.
Custer, on the right, has the typical dark jacket easily assumed to be Union Blue but, what colour are his uniform trousers?
We know from colour lithographs of the time, and surviving examples, that they were fairly light blue. If we didn't already know that though it could easily be assumed to be grey like the Confederate's trousers.
Here is a video from VPS_Gettysburg found on Instagram, that shows some great examples.
There is a thriving Tintype photo scene for re-enactors in the States so lots of examples of the outfits in colour to compare with their tintype versions.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta.
While everyone is working on getting our Days of Yore camp ready to go an often asked question is how did Victorians dress during the heat of Summer. Days of Yore is usually very hot indeed so we have to keep it in mind.
Gentlemen were allowed to dispense with coat and waistcoat when working. Although they usually kept those items close to hand in case the boss came by and when travelling back and forth to work. Ladies, however had more constraints due to "propriety" but also simply fashion. To get the correct fashionable silhouette requires many layers so how did they handle the heat?
The promo pic is also missing the needed bonnets that would have always been worn when outside.
Most photographs of the period show people "dressed up" for business, travel, and simply being in public, not necessarily for everyday work around the house, yard or fields. So it is tougher to find what people generally wore in the heat of Summer.
However the reenactor community has re-discovered how to handle it and here are several links to interesting discussions on that very subject.
Victorian Clothing Through the Seasons
"During the Victorian era many layers of clothing were required to achieve a fashionable silhouette and women wore dresses all year round. These facts have helped to feed misconceptions about Victorian clothing and often overshadow the logical solutions Victorian women used to regulate their body temperature and stay comfortable regardless of the weather."
Lots of photos here.
Victorian Clothing and the Heat of Summer
That’s simply how clothing was worn in the 19th century.
PLUS…. and people forget this…. the fabric used was natural – cotton and linen. Thin fabrics that breathe and keep you cool in the heat.
The comments below this post have lots of insight to the practicality of Victorian styles to today's reenactors.
And finally a fun video on the "Old West".
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta
