Most people, when they think of Queen Victoria, picture her in her widow's weeds, which she adopted after the death of her husband, Prince Albert. But the 19th century was an era of tremendous technological, industrial, and social change and this had a huge impact on what people were wearing. There was the invention of aniline dyes, which produced bright colours. There was the crinoline craze in the mid-century, which saw the circumference of women's skirts reach epic proportions and that was only possible because of developments in steel technology. for menswear, there were innovations in tailoring, which meant fashion was all about cut and construction, rather than about decorative embellishment like we saw last week. All of this means that there is much more to Victorian fashion than that picture we have of Queen Victoria in her black mourning dress.
1819 Key date: 24 May – Victoria is born at Kensington Palace
Key fashion date: Trousers which reached the instep were popular with men, replacing the breeches of the 18th century, apart from court dress
1830
Key date: 26 June – George IV dies and is succeeded by William IV
1837
Key date: 20 June – King William IV dies, Victoria inherits the throne
1838
Key date: Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist
Key fashion date: Women’s fashions become more exaggerated with inflated sleeves and bigger skirts
Key date: 1 August – slavery abolished in the British empire
1840
Key date: 10 February – Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert
Key fashion date: Queen Victoria wears a wedding dress of Spitalfields silk and Honiton lace
Key date: 21 November – Victoria, the Princess Royal is born
1841
Key date: 9 November – Prince Albert (later Edward VII) is born
1842
Key fashion date: Victoria and Albert host a fancy dress ball where guests dress in historically inspired costumes
1843
Key date: 25 April – Princess Alice is born
1844
Key date: 6 August – Prince Alfred is born
1845
Key fashion date: Elias Howe patents a sewing machine in the United States
1846
Key date: 5 May – Princess Helena is born
1848
Key date: 18 March – Princess Louise is born
1850
Key fashion date: Fly fronts are in common use in men’s trousers
Key date: 1 May – Prince Arthur is born
1851
Key date: 1 May – the Great Exhibition opens at Crystal Palace in Hyde Park
1853
Key date: Start of the Crimean War
Key date: 7 April – Prince Leopold is born
1856
Key fashion date: William Henry Perkins discovers ‘mauve’, the first aniline dye
Key fashion date: Steel is used to make the ‘cage crinoline’
1857
Key date: 14 April – Princess Beatrice is born
1859
Key date: Charles Darwins’ On the Origins of Species is published
1861
Key date: 14 December – Prince Albert dies, ages 42
Key fashion date: Queen Victoria adopts mourning clothes that she will continue to wear for the rest of her life
Key date: Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management is published
1863
Key date: 10 March - Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) marries Princess Alexandra of Denmark
1870s-80s
Key fashion date: Various styles of bustle dominate and shape women’s fashions
1876
Key date: Queen Victoria is declared empress of India
1880
Key date: Education becomes compulsory for children under 10 years old
1892
Key date: 14 January – Prince Albert Victor (second in line to the throne) dies, aged 28
Key fashion date: First synthetic silk is created
1893
Key date: 6 July – Prince George, Duke of York (later George V) marries Princess Mary (May) of Teck
1897
Key date: Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee
1901
Key date: 22 January – Queen Victoria dies at Osborne House.
