Victorian Fashion

My main interest into looking into Victorian Fashion would be the colour and material choice but I find looking into period fashion really interesting and potentially inspiring. 

EVERYDAY FASHION

The main goal for womens fashion would be to show the husbands/family wealth and status off to the rest of the country and surprisingly the men would very much blend into the background. In comparison to previous era's this era was very much about women, albeit still objectifying them. The general style for women was very full with a lot of pleats. Hoops were used in the skirts to help create this big look, however these were still very beautiful and very romantic. The more the Victorian era went on the smaller the width of the skirt became, still big in comparison, but a lot smaller. White was a favorable colour to wear as a petticoat but they soon became impractical as more and more women started to work or leave the house causing them to become dirty. Red and scarlet were the colours they wore instead. Materials used for the petticoats were Camlet, cashmere, flannel, taffeta, silk and alpaca.

1859 Victorian Fashion
http://trulyvictorian.com/history/1859petersons1.jpg

1868 Victorian Fashion
http://trulyvictorian.com/history/1868JournaldesDemoiselles.jpg

WEDDING DRESSES

A key feature to Great Expectations is the fact Miss Havisham never removes her wedding dress.

Before Queen Victoria married, white wasn't always the chosen colour to wed in, Teens wore pale green to show their fertility, a 'mature' girl (in her twenties) wore brown and the elder women wore black. Only the poor women wore white to show they had nothing to bring to the marriage, which shows that Miss Havisham married after Queen Victoria as she was a very wealthy lady. This was mostly during Saxon times but also still occasionally came into play in the Victorian Era but the colour of the womens dress determined the life she was going to lead:

White--chosen right
Blue--love will be true
Yellow--ashamed of her fellow
Red--wish herself dead
Black--wish herself back
Grey--travel far away
Pink--of you he'll always think
Green-ashamed to be seen

An early Victorian wedding dress consisted of a fitted bodice, and a full skirt, similarly to the everyday fashion, usually it was made from organdy, tulle, lace, gauze, silk, linen or cashmere. A veil was also worn. The wealthy women tended to have their gown made out of lace, which I suspect Miss Havisham did also.

1858 Queen Victoria in her wedding dress.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/41/e8/e4/41e8e4ab008fb0c1cc5045dfba04410c.jpg