Young Victoria
The popular image of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) is of an old and rather stout lady dressed in black.
young Victoria wore delicate petticoats in her reign, and had a love of pastels, delicate embroidery and keeping up with fashions of the time. As befits a queen’s underwear, the petticoat is hand sewn to the highest standards, made of fine fabric and trimmed with intricate lace.
an abiding image of Victoria that we have, that she was this quite dour elderly woman, quite stout at this point, and shrouded in black. But actually it's very much a sort of misconception and very much only representative of the second half of her life. And actually, as a young woman, she very much enjoyed dressing fashionably. She loved to wear pale colours, particularly sort of blues, pinks, and lilacs, and really enjoyed floral embellishments, lots of interesting accessories. And what's interesting is the majority of the clothes that survive actually date from earlier in her reign. vibrant and colourful and beautifully embellished
most of her underwear worked with her monogram or stamped it somewhere. Usually her underwear would have had the crown over the VR, and then underneath it would have a number.
Royal weddings
The wedding of Queen Victoria (1837‒1901) to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819‒1861) was a significant moment, not only for the social, political and cultural effects it would have in society, but also for its influence on fashion. The legacy of Victoria’s sartorial choices for that memorable day, 10 February 1840, can still be seen today.
In previous centuries, the social status of the bride and groom, where and when the ceremony took place and the importance of their guests dictated how the wedding dress looked. In general, there was no prominent colour or style of dress; brides usually wore the best they could afford. The aristocracy preferred gowns in silver, silver and white or white, not just for weddings but for all formal occasions. This is because such light-coloured fabrics were impractical and difficult to maintain, and their use demonstrated that the wearer was wealthy enough to have servants caring for their clothes.
Royal weddings were particularly grand, with the bride wearing glittering clothes made of silk, gold or silver threads, magnificent jewellery and regalia. For instance, when Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744‒1818) married George III (1760‒1820) in 1761, she wore a gown of silver tissue (a very special fabric woven with silk threads wrapped with strips of silver gilt). It was further embroidered with silver thread, and a purple velvet mantle trimmed with gold lace, lined with ermine and fastened on the shoulders with pearls. According to the Duchess of Northumberland, ‘on her Head a little Cap of purple Velvet quite covered with Diamonds, a Diamond Aigrette in the Form of Crown, 3 dropt Diamond Ear Rings, Diamond Necklace, Diamond Sprigs of Flowers on her Sleeves & to clasp back her Robe, a Diamond Stomacher’.
The 20-year-old Queen Victoria decided to break with grand royal tradition. She walked down the aisle of the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace in London wearing a simple ivory court dress of silk satin trimmed with lace made by Mrs Bettans, the Royal Dressmaker. It followed the fashionable line of the period – a low, wide neckline and pointed waist sitting on the natural waistline, with full sleeves and full, pleated skirt.
To demonstrate her support for British manufacturers (which she continued to do throughout her reign), the Queen chose a silk that had been woven in Spitalfields, in East London, and a hand-made Honiton lace from the village of Beer in Devon. The latter was designed by William Dyce, head of the Government School of Design (later the Royal College of Art) and made under the supervision of Miss Jane Bidney, Lacemaker in Ordinary to the Queen, who employed over 200 people to make the lace.
Instead of the heavy velvet robe of state lined with ermine, Victoria opted for a white satin court train attached to the waist and decorated around the edges with sprays of orange-blossom. On her head, a wreath of artificial orange-blossom with a Honiton lace veil replaced a jewelled circlet. Jewellery was limited to a Turkish diamond necklace and earrings and the sapphire and diamond brooch designed by Prince Albert himself and given as a wedding present to his bride. It was important for the young queen to marry her ‘precious Angel’ as a woman in love, rather than as the British monarch making a political match. Twelve trainbearers also wore white silk gowns with white roses in their hair. The overall effect of the bridal party was of delicate femininity.
Orange-blossom was seen as a symbol of virtue and fertility. Although natural orange-blossoms were available in England, most brides preferred to wear artificial ones made from wax, paper or stiffened cotton. Mr Rogers of Eaton Square in London supplied the flowers for Queen Victoria and Mrs Peachy supplied her wedding favours, comprising white roses, orange-blossom and myrtle tied together with white satin ribbon. Mrs Peachy was a specialist in wax flower modelling and in her book about the subject she noted that wax flowers tended to wilt and stick to the hair due to the heat of crowded rooms without much ventilation. She recommended attaching a fine wire at the back of each petal and sprinkling white flowers with arrowroot powder. Coloured flowers had the extra protection from the paint. Stems were wrapped in ribbon, which could be scented.
Details of the royal wedding were disseminated throughout the country and indeed Europe in newspapers, cheap prints and souvenirs. Such publicity was affordable to many people and soon white wedding dresses worn with a veil and an orange-blossom wreath were copied by fashionable brides at every level of society. Queen Victoria was deeply in love with Prince Albert and her delicate, feminine image became a symbol of romantic love and purity.
Although styles have evolved and fashions changed over time, today these are still key elements chosen by young, first-time Christian brides.
When Queen Victoria’s eldest son Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (1901‒1910) married Princess Alexandra of Denmark (1844‒1925) on the 10 March 1863, she insisted on helping to choose the bride’s dress. The Queen’s uncle, King Leopold of Belgium (1790‒1865) had sent a beautiful gown made with Brussels lace as a wedding gift, but the Queen had it sent back. She expected her future daughter-in-law to wear British-made clothes, just as she herself had done. They decided on a dress made of English silk trimmed with Honiton lace from Devon and patterned with British floral emblems – roses, shamrocks and thistles.
Princess Alexandra was incredibly glamorous and her wedding attire, made from similar materials to Queen Victoria’s, helped to turn the fashion for a white dress, veil and orange-blossom into tradition.
Queen Victoria’s influence on family wedding traditions extended to the next generation as well. The wedding between Princess Mary (‘May’) of Teck and Prince George, Duke of York, took place on 6 July 1893 at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, in London. Just like the wedding gowns of her grandmother-in-law, Queen Victoria, and mother-in-law, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, May’s dress was made of white Spitalfields silk and Honiton lace and decorated with orange-blossom, and her veil was fashioned from Honiton lace. This consistency in the choices of materials for arguably the three most significant British royal weddings of the 19th century helped to establish bridal traditions that are still in place today.
The young Princess May, well-educated and highly thought of by the royal family, had previously become engaged to the heir to the throne, Prince Albert Victor (‘Eddy’). It was a popular match, Queen Victoria approved and preparations for the wedding, set for February 1892, were well underway when Eddy contracted influenza and died in January. His funeral was held at St George’s Chapel Windsor, and his grieving bride-to-be laid her wedding bouquet of orange blossom on his coffin.
After his death, Princess May and Eddy’s younger brother Prince George spent much time comforting each other, which led to much speculation. In April 1893 the rumours were confirmed, as Prince George proposed, with his mother’s blessing. Thoughts turned to the bride’s trousseau, which posed something of a problem. The Princess’s parents were not wealthy, but she couldn’t possibly wear the original dress, which was considered bad luck and her trousseau was rather outdated. May’s wealthy aunt, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz came to the rescue and gave her £1,000 to cover the costs.
The new trousseau was entirely made in Britain by dressmakers including Linton and Curtis, Scott Adie and Redfern, and comprised 40 outdoor suits, 15 ball gowns, five tea gowns and numerous accessories. According to the rather stressed-out bride, ‘We get trousseau things sent to us on approval from all parts of England, Scotland and Ireland so that we are nearly driven mad and have not a moment’s peace.’
For her intended wedding to Eddy, the bride’s dress had been of Spitalfields silk with a design created by Arthur Silver of Silver Studio. As we have seen before, wearing British clothes was something Queen Victoria was already used to doing and had demanded the Princess of Wales to do the same with her wedding dress. The Duchess of Teck was also a supporter of British clothing, being the president of the Ladies’ National Silk Association. For Princess May’s forthcoming wedding to Prince George, Arthur Silver created a new design, ‘The May Silks’, which was inspired by Japanese art and followed the Art Nouveau style.
In March 1893, the Duchess and the bride-to-be commissioned Warner & Sons factory in Spitalfields to weave Silver’s brocade design using the finest white silk and silver thread. The dress was made by Linton and Curtis of Albemarle Street in London and decorated with rose, shamrock and thistle embroidery and trimmed with orange-blossoms. Its front featured small flounces of Honiton lace, originally from her mother’s wedding dress. Both the long, simple train and the veil were made of the same lace, fastened in place with diamond pins given by Queen Victoria. Jewellery included a diamond tiara also given by the Queen, a diamond necklace given by the Prince and Princess of Wales and diamond earrings and brooch given by the groom. In her diary, Queen Victoria wrote: ‘Dear May looked so pretty & quiet & dignified. She was vy. [very] simply & prettily dressed and wore her mother’s veil lace.’
The wedding created huge excitement. Women’s magazines analysed every detail of the royal trousseau and the wedding gifts were displayed at London’s Imperial Institute for the first time. The day of the ceremony was beautifully warm and sunny, and crowds gathered on the streets to see the bridal procession and send their well wishes. A feast was served at Buckingham Palace and after the meal Queen Victoria led the newlyweds out onto the balcony to present them to the cheering crowds, a tradition that still continues today.
Wedding traditions
Wedding traditions reflect and celebrate many aspects of different cultures, places and people. Victoria started the white wedding dress tradition
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