Miriam’s worries about her clothing is a constant theme in Pilgrimage. Here are a few passages about the state of women’s fashion in England in the 1890s.
From A History of English Dress from the Saxon Period to the Present Day by Georgina Hill. Richard Bentley and Son (1893).
The simplicity which has taken possession of men’s costume has also invaded women’s dress, in a lesser degree. Cheap travelling, the opening up of new employments for women, the changed ideas with regard to the physical education of girls, the modern outdoor recreations and games, the rush of the leisured classes into all kinds of social and philanthropic work, have all contributed to revolutionize costume. Women have fashioned their dress to their occupations and amusements, or rather are trying to do so, for we are yet a long way from success. In the last century, no fashionable lady possessed a pair of thick, double-soled, leather boots. She never walked out in wet weather, and would have fainted at the idea of climbing a mountain. Now she walks about in all weathers, tramps over the moors, and scales the Alps. In the early Victorian period the only kind of physical drill was the backboard; there was no tennis, even the mild diversion of croquet had not been invented then, rowing was thought unladylike, and the mere mention of cricket or golf would have scattered all the proprieties to the four winds. Now girls have their gymnastic costumes, their tennis frocks, and their boating flannels like men.
At the beginning of the century there were no women engaged in the higher departments of commercial life; a needy gentlewoman, if she were not qualified to become a governess, earned a bitter livelihood as companion, or starved on fine needlework and water-colour sketches. There were no trains to catch, there was no rushing to and fro every day between city and suburb; women were compelled to find their occupations at home. They took little or no part in public work: their philanthropy was confined to visiting the poor in their own neighbourhoods; there were no women’s “movements”, no clubs, and very few of those active organizations for ameliorating life in which women are now the chief workers….
The characteristic of modern fashion is a taste for extreme simplicity. No costume has been more popular than the tailor-made gown in which the limit of plainness has been reached. The tailor- made gown was begotten by the taste of the modern woman for sport. Adopted at first by a small circle, it was speedily taken up, and is now worn by all sorts of people who never saw a moor in their lives or walked on anything but a pavement. Imitations of the tailor-made gown are common, for the genuine article, simple as it looks, is an expensive luxury….
At the present day women are as much abroad as men; they are in the professions, in all kinds of business, in the midst of the great current of social activities, which sweeps along at a constantly increasing speed. Their life has entirely changed. And this applies to women of all classes, from the artisan’s daughter to women with landed estates and old titles. Ladies of rank have become shopkeepers ; girls whose mothers were domestic servants are clerks and book-keepers; women who pride themselves on belonging to the “people” sit on committees with countesses.
All this has brought a rigorous plainness into costume. Muslin frocks are only seen at garden parties, except in the country; silk has given place to the more serviceable woollen materials; and light colours are eschewed for obvious reasons of fitness and economy. Everything for daily use must be quiet and unnoticeable, able to stand wear and tear, rain and dust, tumbling and creasing. The omnibus and tram-car have much to answer for in the toning down of our costume from gay to grave. In these democratic days everybody rides in public vehicles, and this custom not only tends to produce a sober uniformity in dress, but is a great bulwark against any huge extravagance of fashion. “Constructed to hold twelve inside” would be a meaningless mockery if six out of the twelve wore large crinolines.
From How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman. Viking (2013)
By the end of the 1880s, the ready-to-wear market for women began to catch up with that for men. While bodices still largely defied mass production, requiring far too much fit for nineteenth-century factory methods, the range of garments that were for sale ready-made was rising. Underwear and nightwear had previously been manufactured at home by women, but by this decade vast quantities were being produced commercially. Sewing machines and machine-made lace had made the production of chemises, combinations and nightdresses much quicker, and the product more attractive. Such items were very popular with women lower down the social ladder, who were only too glad to shift the burden of such sewing on to other shoulders. Petticoats and skirts were now also available ready-made, as was a range of cloaks, coats and other overgarments….
The most noticeable and universal point to make about Victorian women’s clothes is the layering. Rich or poor, 1839 or 1901, Victorian women wore a vast number of individual items of clothes. And most of these layers were cotton-based. Silk dresses were made up on cotton backing, as were most woollen dresses. Dresses, chemises, drawers, corsets, corset covers, stockings and petticoats could all be cotton. There were a host of other fabrics that were used, but cotton was undoubtedly the dominant fibre in most women’s wardrobes. Even with the addition of a flannel petticoat or two — the most common way for wool to enter a woman’s wardrobe — washable cottons were important. The many layers added warmth without bulk and put a fully washable layer between the skin and the unwashable corset.
This held true throughout the period. Cotton was a cheap fabric — generally about a third of the cost of good wools, and nearer a tenth of the cost of silks — though, unsurprisingly, there was much discrepancy in price. Linen could be used instead of cotton but, again, it was much more expensive. As well as its cheapness, cotton also offered colour, variety and pattern. Fabric printing with engraved metal rollers had arrived in the late eighteenth century, allowing bright colours and varied designs, including a great many floral patterns, to fall within the reach of very ordinary people. Patterns of cloth could fade in and out of fashion quickly and easily, but even members of the working class could have attempted to follow them. Choice was one very important thing that cotton offered many Victorian women. The range of colour and pattern available to those on very strict budgets was large and appealing.
Another common theme was the skin-tight fit of bodices. Sleeves and skirts changed dramatically in size and shape over the years, but the upper part of women’s garments remained very snugly held against the body, even over the parts that were not corseted. These garments did not stretch and had very little ‘give’ in them. A range of movements could make the fabric pull and dig in at the armpits and around the neck. As a result — and from my own experience — you quickly learn to stop twisting to do tasks, and reaching up above your head is rarely comfortable. The cut of Victorian bodices encouraged you to fetch a stool to reach that top shelf, or to get up and turn around rather than turning around in your chair.
Big skirts were very much a Victorian theme and, while their actual size rose and fell, as did the overall shape, at all times there was plenty of material sweeping about. Victorian homes, especially later on in the era, were notorious for clutter, but were you able to look a little closer, you would notice that the clutter was confined to items and objects at and above waist level. Anything left lying around below that height would soon get knocked over. There were no low coffee tables in Victorian Britain; occasional tables and stands were tall and brought most household goods out of the danger zone.
With figure-hugging bodices and large skirts, another common experience was being warm from the waist down and freezing from the waist up; it was no coincidence that many women clutched their shawls so tightly. The tailor-made business suits at the very end of the 1890s were the only real exception, when jackets produced along the lines of men’s clothing in tweeds and other wools were worn over the bodice or blouse. Having worn some surviving suits myself, I can certainly understand why these became so popular with those who could afford them; they are just so much warmer.
From Victorian Dress in Photographs by Madeleine Ginsburg. Holmes & Meier Publishers (1982)
The clothes of the Scrope sisters span the range of middle-of-the -road fashion which could have been worn in the later 1880s. The two youngest girls are dressed in sheer fabrics, somewhat in the aesthetic style, with loose-cut, square-necked bodices, sashes and medium- full, though straight, skirts. The one standing to the left of the sundial displays a similar taste for the aesthetic in her mediaeval inspired gown with a preference for the pretty rather than the severe. Their hair is dressed close to the head. It is interesting to compare the longer-waisted styles of the older girls, perhaps wearing last year’s dresses, with the more up- to-date short waists of the younger ones.
Informal dress of 1897 worn by Lady Stone, wife of Sir Benjamin, who took the photograph, Mrs Derry, and friends at Studley Castle, Warwickshire. The girls wear blouses with fashionably full sleeves, neatly belted into wide, flared skirts which had replaced the straighter semi-bustled line in about 1895. Straw boaters and cravats were a popular unisex accessory. Lady Stone is dressed in the height of fashion in a dress, with sleeves which are just beginning to become smaller. It has only a small puff at the shoulders and a wide flared skirt.
Chelmsford Cycling Club members in the mid-1890s wear clothes typical for their age and date. The girls, all in fashionable full sleeves, wear blouses and/or jackets, full, flared skirts, collars and ties. Their boaters, perched straight on the crown of the head, are wider- brimmed than in the 1880s. There had been attempts to devise more specialised costumes with bloomers and divided skirts, but by the 1890s cycling had become so popular it was an ordinary everyday pursuit rather than a specialised sport, while with the improved . safety bicycle, a slight shortening of the skirt was all that was necessary. The men wear tweed knickerbocker suits.
Other sources:
1890-1899, From the Fashion History Timeline, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York.
https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1890-1899/
Women’s Fashions of the 1890s, from Bellatory.
https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/Womens-Fashions-of-the-1890s
Corsets and Bustles from 1880-90 – the Move from Over-Structured Opulence to the ‘Healthy Corset’, from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/corsets-and-bustles-1880-1890-from-over-structured-opulence-to-the-healthy-corset/
Sewing an 1895 Walking Skirt, from The Historical Homemaker
https://thehistoricalhomemaker.org/2021/04/03/sewing-an-1895-walking-skirt/