Victorian fashion accessories

227 Pages·2012·3.84 MB·English

by  Beaujot

Victorian Fashion Accessories
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Victorian Fashion Accessories
Ariel Beaujot
London • New York
English edition
First published in 2012 by
Berg
Editorial offi ces:
50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP, UK
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
© Ariel Beaujot 2012
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form
or by any means without the written permission of B erg.
Berg is an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
PDF ISBN 978 0 85785 319 6
ISBN 978 1 84788 683 5 (Cloth)
978 1 84788 682 8 (Paper)
e-ISBN 978 0 85785 319 6 (institutional)
978 0 85785 320 2 (individual)
www.bergpublishers.com
To my mentors
Tim Blackmore and Pat Skidmore-Skuce
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Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1 “The Beauty of her Hands”: The Glove and the Making
of Middle-Class Womanhood 31
2 “The Language of the Fan”: Pushing the Boundaries
of Middle-Class Womanhood 63
3 “Underneath the Parasol”: Umbrellas as Symbols
of Imperialism, Race, Youth, Flirtation, and Masculinity 105
4 “The Real Thing”: The Celluloid Vanity Set and the Search
for Authenticity 139
Conclusion 179
Bibliography 183
– vii –
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List of Figures
INTRODUCTION
0.1 Ephemera showing a fl irtatious Victorian lady with her
fan/calendar open. 1897. 2
0.2 The fan/calendar is closed revealing the lady’s bosom. 1897. 15
CHAPTER 1
1.1 A woman signs the register after her wedding with gloveless
hands. Circa 1880. 35
1.2 Afternoon tea was a time when women revealed their hands
to an intimate circle of friends. 1892. 36
1.3 The “awful effects of too much lawn-tennis by the sea” is
experienced by women once they return to Society events
in the city. 1883. 37
1.4 Bridal Bouquet Bloom was advertised as a hygienic liquid;
however, many of these mail-order beauty products
contained dangerous ingredients like lead or arsenic. 1892. 39
1.5 Actress Sarah Bernhardt brought opera gloves back into
fashion because she was embarrassed to show her
thin arms. 1887. 41
1.6 Fashion plates throughout the nineteenth century demonstrate
passive hand gestures meant to be emulated by middle-class
women. 1880. 42
1.7 In this 1897 family photo, lax hands imitate the fashion
plates of the day. 43
1.8 The glove stretcher’s pointed tips (center object) helped
keep the fi ngers of gloves tapered. Circa 1900. 44
1.9 Working-class women, possibly actresses, solicit wealthy
gentlemen at the Victoria Theatre, a popular music hall of
the 1870s. 45
– ix –