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Tuesday 23 July 2013

Women Dress Designs

Women Dress Designs Biogarphy

Source(google.com.pk)
The revival of Puritan ethics -- in reaction to the rapid change in society brought by industrialization <5> -- and the influence of utilitarianism on early 19th century England were predominantly a middle-class phenomena; middle-class moral values and work ethics symbolized the Victorian era where self-help, self-denial and moral discipline were predominant Victorian credos; work and serious behavior were earnest concerns; and an obsessive regard for respectability characterized the Victorian middle-class. <6> Consequently, the changing fashions in women's dress became a much debated subject of the social conservatives, dress reformers and feminists alike. The furor centered over what was considered "rational" and "lady-like" dress; and, as women's dress became more ornate and versatile, the debate grew. Defenders and opponents of lady-like dress artfully argued from the moral and health standpoints: the former group claimed that lady-like dress symbolized discipline, respectability, thrift, self-control and beauty; the latter group argued that lady-like dress was degrading and endangered the health of ladies. <7> The debate was, however, never so heated and controversial as was the argument over the use of corsets and tightlacing which were necessities of lady-like dress. The "trappings" of women's fashion were expensive to a great majority in Victorian England; thus, only the rich upper and middle-classes had the means to indulge. Since the working-class could ill afford the fashions of the time and usually wore cheap and crude imitations of upper-class fashion, <8> we will concentrate here on only how the upper-classes in Victorian society dressed.
Industrial England by mid-19th century made available to middle-class women fashionable clothes of quality which, hitherto, only aristocrats could afford. Technical improvements in textile, and its availability through mass production at a reasonable price had made lady-like dress a middle-class indulgence. <9> The Victorian upper-middle-class -- especially after the 1850s -- were increasingly determined to blend into the English aristocracy and, despite their scorn of aristocratic values, were irresistibly drawn to the privileged status of the highborn. Lady-like dress was worn with conscious seriousness by the nouveau riche that gave middle-class women more control of what was "acknowledged theirs by law and custom." <10> Women by way of varied dress styles could now express a certain degree of individualism, <11> and as the role of ornamental womanhood was the only role that some Victorian middle-class women seriously believed in, dress became an expression of themselves -- a sense of independence as it were: <12> "freedom to have fun, to evade their chaperones, to flirt." <13> By the 1860s, flaunting themselves in fashionable dresses and achieving the tiniest waists with the use of corsets "became their major occupation." <14> For other middle-class women, the versatility of fashion-by the 1890s -- provided them the choice to don lady-like or "rational" dress depending on the occasion. <15>
The phrase, "lady-like dress," refers to what a typical Victorian lady would wear. Women's apparel consisted of such intricacies as laced petticoats, high stiff collars, embroidered underwear, padding, complicated boned lining and interlinings, frills, bows, ribbons, crinolines, bustles (or false "bums"), furbelows, tightlacing and corsets-the last five of which were contraptions to accentuate the hips and bust and where the ubiquitous corsets were used to reduce waistlines to the acceptable 20 inches. <16> Accessories were equally numerous and often overdone; oversized or tiny bonnets were decorated with flowers [Victorians loved rosebuds and these were worn everywhere for it represented innocence; the use of other flowers usually suggested outlandish tastes], <17> furs, veils, feathers, bows and ribbons to name but a few. Although all of these may seem outlandish to modem tastes, such fashion fitted the Victorian image of "elegance and pompous placidity" well. <18> The high-minded seriousness so characteristic of most Victorians equated "cumbersome" dress, the corsets and tightlacing in particular, with the middle-class ethics of self-control and discipline. It is against this backdrop of established Victorian moral codes and values that dress reformers and proponents of lady-like dress engaged in heated debates; (this was, on hindsight, intellectually stimulating, and at times quite hilarious).
The "rational" dress went against the Victorian preoccupation with lady-like dress. In 1851, Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, an American, was the first dress reformer to launch a public effort in trying to change women's dress. Her practical alternatives to lady-like dress were loose tunics worn over ankle-length trousers . <19> The trousers, later known as the "bloomers," "rationals," or knickerbockers, became the butt of jokes in England. <20> Some Victorians were also extremely concerned with the excesses of lady-like dress. These dress reformers' emphasis were on hygiene and practical dressing; they generally called for more loose-cut clothing that would allow easy body movement. Dress reformers, however, argued among themselves over the designs of "rational" dress: some suggested that pressure should be shifted from the waist (discarding crinolines, corsets and bustles) to the shoulders (tunics which hung from the shoulders). <21> At length there was a general consensus to avoid the use of trousers as much as possible. <22> Trousers were "unmentionables" <23> and were shunned by most ladies-until the beginning of the 20th century-who would rather wear divided skirts than be caught in a pair of knickerbockers. <24> The culottes, loose jackets, blouses and knickerbockers were some of the "rational" alternatives to the lady-like dress.
There were many other opposing views among the "rational" dress reformers themselves. They were divided into several camps which either overlapped or were independent groups. The conservatives consisted of medical doctors, anti-feminist and social Darwinists. The feminists were another vocal group; Mrs. Emily M. King was one of the most outspoken leaders of the Rational Dress Society in England, founded in 1881. The other dress reformers, with less popular following, were the Pre-Raphaelites whose appeal for the light and loose Greco-Roman clothes went against Victorian moral sensibilities. William Morris's call "to reform a philistine age by means of the decorative arts" failed to convince Victorians; <25> if anything, it had the reverse effect of confirming the superiority of lady-like dress.
Some of the defenders of lady-like dress based their arguments on the premise of cultural and racial superiority. Against the Pre-Raphaelites, leading lady-like dress defender Mrs. Hugh R. Haweis, argued that the loosely clothed Rubens' women were immodest and the lack of structured underclothes and light drapery material was scandalous. <26> Clearly, these Victorians equated loose dress with loose morals, therefore loose stays gave rise to the phrase "loose morals." Lady-like dress proponents were further convinced that the empire-style dress Greco-Roman influenced-which followed the French Revolution of 1789 indicated a period of "indecency of dress" and "general licentiousness of manners and morals." <27> The abandonment of corsets was connected to moral laxity according to some Victorians.

Women Dress Designs