Fashion in the 1870s.

As a costume designer you need to have a great knowledge of fashion history. You need to know everything about every time period as you never know what will be thrown at you. Therefore, i have decided to start a new costume history series of posts. I will explain fashion decade by decade. Hopefully this this be a really useful resource for designers. If you need to design for a period you can just look at some of the pictures in the relevant decade for inspiration. My old costume history tutor will be so proud of me!

I am going to start with the 1870s.

For women this decade saw the female silouhette become more slimline. Skirts became narrow with a large 'bustle' at the rear. Sleeves became narrow and relatively simple. This decade also saw a resurge in the choker necklace (velvet ribbon worn high round the neck).

Possibly, my favourite style of this decade was the bohemian style. This was seen as anti-fashion and was infuenced by old medieval style. Women sometimes shunned the restrictive corset and wore more comfortable fabrics. Everything became more flowing. This saw the introduction of the tea dress.

Artiste's such as Oscar Wilde and Natalie Clifford Barney really embraced this fashion.

A fantastic thing about this period is that photography had become very popular. One of the reason i like the Victorians so much is we have first hand resources to how they dressed, rather than having to interpret paintings. Unlike a painting you know what you are seeing is actually exactly how it looked. Another benefit to photographs is that they provide a really useful look into what the 'normal' working class people looked. Check out these amazing photos of the working classes in London in 1876.

Another great resource for this fashion in this time period are the painting of James Abbott McNeill Whistler-

Here are some examples of films set in the 1870s-

1.) Phantom of the Opera 

2.) Around the World in 80 days

3.) True Grit

There are so many images to choose from for this post; literally could have included 100s! I hope i have managed to find a collection that could be useful to you. If you have any feedback about which pics you liked or what else you would like included let me know. Then i can make sure the next decade i feature will be a perfect resource for designers.

Wow, now after this epic post i am going to go and have a cup of tea...