Oh to be young and innocent again! :D I started Victorian reenactment at the tender age of 10 years old, and during the subsequent 20+ years I've been told so many things as fact that I either knew or later found out that were completely wrong. So I thought I'd share the ones I can remember on here.
1. If you wear your shawl over you're shoulders it means you're a tart
Queen Victoria - Lady of the Night
TP Hall c.1850
The story of "The Bruce" c.1861-2 Metropolitan Museum of Art
This is one of the "facts" that I believed for years, that shawls worn by ladies were only to be worn around the waist and looped over the arms. If they headed anywhere near your shoulders it meant that you gained your money via interesting means. It was only until I started using the internet, and saw numerous illustrations and photos of ladies of all ages with shawls adorning their shoulders that I realised my mistake. Either that or there are a lot of Victorian prostitutes.
2. If you wear red it means you're a tart.
Queen Victoria again - no wonder she had so many children!
1856
Charles-Lucien-Louis Muller
Dress c.1845 - 49 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dress c.1869 Metropolitan Museum of Art
3. If you wear bright colours it means....you've guessed it... you're a tart!
I couldn't resist another image of Queen Victoria c.1856
You know dear, I think I'll wear my black bodice, green skirt and yellow bonnet today.
1856 - Iowa State University Library
An explosion of colour - 1831
More 1830s loveliness - c.1836 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ballgown c.1865
There does seem to be a bit of a theme going on here. Victorian ladies only wore carefully matched neutral colours. Brash or clashing colours = tart. I've also heard it said that only earthy colours were worn because of the absence of chemical dyes. I hate to tell these people that until recently in the UK red smarties were coloured by crushed beetles (cochineal) and you should see the bright yellow you can get from onion skins. The first aniline dye "Mauve" was discovered in 1856 with other colours soon following. Whilst some fashion plates did show earth colours nicely matched with bonnets, just as many showed a complete mash up of colours - the brighter the better.
4. Bonnet ribbons were not cut in swallow tails.
Queen Victoria has kept her bonnet tie ends cunningly hidden in most of the images I have of her so here is Princess Alice instead (far left) Taken 26 May 1857
c.1850s
Not sure if this is a bonnet or a headdress - early 1850s (source Dennis A. Waters Fine Daguerreotypes)
Early 1860s Bonnet (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Fancy cut ribbons 1/6 plate daguerreotype c.1850s (Many thanks to Mirror Image Gallery for permission to use this image)
I love my (not very interested in costume history) husbands response to this, which was surely if they had a pair of scissors and a ribbon some people would cut it other than straight. Luckily I had already seen evidence of swallow tails before I went and re-trimmed every bonnet ribbon I own (which are all swallow tailed). On period photos I have seen bonnet ribbons cut straight, angled, curved, swallow tailed and zigzag. So ladies go wild with you and cut your ribbons as you please!
5. Victorian ladies didn't wear green dresses
Watercolour of Queen Victoria - Winterhalter 1855
I love this dress - Silk plush Promenade dress c.1855-57 Victoria & Albert Museum
1856 evening gown (Ye Olde Fashion Tumblr)
+
1850s day dress (Old Rags Tumblr)
No idea how this one came about. Not much I can say about it other than it is untrue.
6.Well to do Victorian ladies of fashion did not have dresses made of silk, only cotton.
Silk dress worn by Queen Victoria on her state visit to Paris in 1855
Silk dress c.1842 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Afternoon silk dress c.1865 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Silk visiting dress c.1845-50 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Silk dress c.1857 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Please excuse me while I stop laughing. This was a snarky comment made at one of my own costumes. Luckily I was too amused by it to be upset.
I am very amused
Well that's all the ones I can remember at the moment, though I'm certain I've forgotten a couple. I hope this has been amusing if not instructive - and remember don't believe everything you're told! ;)
