Getting Dressed in a Victorian Bustle Ballgown from 1873.

[00:00:00]Getting dressed for a ball in 1873.

[00:00:07]I have on all my basic undergarments.

[00:00:09]So, I'm wearing my shmese split drawers, silk stockings, and corset. And now I'm putting on a pair of embroidered evening boots.

[00:00:19]Lastly, I finished tying up the corset and I tighten it to the desired waist size to fit my gown.

[00:00:28]Now that I have all my basic undergarments on, next I need to put on the bustle cage. And this is what gives the main structure to the skirt of the garment. And this one, as you can see, is absolutely huge. I made this one a few years ago. Um, and unfortunately, I packed the wrong bustel. I meant to pack one which is slightly smaller than this and fits the gown a little bit better.

[00:00:53]Um, however, this one will have to do today. But the benefit is that you will actually get to see basically the hugest that these bustles could get to during the early 1870s.

[00:01:05]And this video was in fact used um by the Bankfield Museum in Halifax as part of their fashion extremes exhibition um to show people basically um how huge different fash fashions could get when they reach their biggest sizes. Um, and this really is about as big as as Brussels could get during the 1870s. And unlike um popularly um believed, um the bustles of the early 1870s could be just as big as the ones in the 1880s. Uh the only difference being that the ones in the 1880s um were more angular and also they sat lower on the waist whereas the early 1870s bustles sat higher at the waist and they tended to have softer curves to them but they could be just as big. So you'll get to see a real good example of that today. So now I'm um putting on the um underskirtt and the underskirtt is made of silk taffeta and this one is lined with silk or ganza. Sometimes um can be lined with silk for very fancy gowns but more often than not um skirts were lined with um just a a plain cotton or a muslin or something similar. Um but the silk oranza works so well. It gives the the skirt a lot of extra body and also um helps it to slide over the petticoats beautifully.

[00:02:39]This skirt does up at the sides and um it uses draw cords in the back to hold the fullness of the skirt over the bustle at the back and again keep it in position.

[00:02:51]You'll notice that the bottom of the skirt has three rows of trim of ruffles.

[00:02:57]Uh it has two rows of van dyke trim which is the dagged trim. You can see the pointed trim and a row of pleats in between. And the van dyke trim was very very popular during the 1870s but especially in the year 1873.

[00:03:13]Um there was a real trend for it then and you'll see it in a lot of fashion plates.

[00:03:19]You may also notice that at the back of the skirt there is a small gore, triangular shaped gore. And that was introduced by Worth in the early 1870s.

[00:03:29]And um the purpose for it was to allow the train to spread out nice and flat on the floor and to prevent um any possible curling of the hem, which could sometimes happen with very long trains.

[00:03:44]And I thought that would be a nice feature to add to this um gown as well.

[00:03:49]So now I'm putting on the overkrt and this overkirt is a double overkrt and it has a removable uh back poof um which is very very handy because it means that it can be removed um to make the gown a little planer perhaps for day wear or um some other occasion like that. And also it enables easy access to the tapes and ties at the back on the inside of the poof which help you to regulate um how tight it is.

[00:04:21]It does put at the side with little hooks and eyes which again are sort of hidden in the seam.

[00:04:27]And this gown um also has a lovely little hidden pocket in the side seam um which is almost impossible to find sometimes but is very very handy. And the gown actually has three pockets in total because I have two on the skirt underneath and one on the overkrt which is very very handy indeed. Um and the gown has got some beautiful red floral arrangements on. Usually these would be put on as one of the last things on the gown. Um but as I don't have a maid, I felt it would be much much easier to put them on beforehand um for the purposes of the video.

[00:05:07]So now I'm putting on my Basque bodice.

[00:05:10]And the Basque bodice is is called that because it comes down very slightly over the hips side. And it has postilian pleats at the back which is basically like a little tail of pleat that sit sit down over the bustel. Um, and they were actually very very tricky to make. Um, to get the right size and the right angle for the pleats. Um, and to get them looking like the fashion plate basically was quite tricky. It took a few goes, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. And it's lined in velvet to match the trim on the dress. So, I've just done up the waist tape, the little white tape that you can see there at my waist. And the purpose of the waist tape is to keep the bodice at the correct position at the waist and stop it from riding up. And also it makes it easier to um do the gown up at the front if the gown is properly held in place at the waist.

[00:06:07]So, as I'm a little closer, you'll be able to see that the gown buttons up with matching silk covered buttons.

[00:06:17]And the edges of the gown on the sleeves um all the way around the front point and the back are all edged in um a velvet piping too, which ties in nicely with the um velvet trim on the dress.

[00:06:31]So, that's all the buttons done.

[00:06:34]Now I'm doing a little adjustment cord at the neckline of the gown. And again, this is so that you can regulate it, how loose or how tight you want it to sit on your shoulders. And it also prevents the gown from gaping. Um, the Victorians had all sorts of little innovations like this. Nifty innovations.

[00:06:52]And finally, the birther, which is the neckline decoration. Um, that does up the tiny little hooks and eyes just over the top of the buttons there. And um they could they can barely even be seen.

[00:07:05]And sometimes they would do up at the shoulder as well, but this one does up at the front. And finally, I'm adding some accessories. So, I have a gold bracelet, which is gold cuff bracelet, and it's an original from the 1870s. Has a lovely buckle design on it.

[00:07:22]And I'm putting on some red dante earrings to match my floral arrangements.

[00:07:28]And finally, I'm finishing it off with a beautiful gold locket. And lockets were very popular throughout the Victorian period. This one's circa 1860s, 1870s, or thereabouts. And it's tied on with black velvet ribbon, which trails down the back of the dress, which again was a was a popular thing in this era. And I have my gloves, and I have my fan. And I'm ready to go downstairs and greet my guests.

[00:08:00]You can see just how ginormous the gown is at the back, but it has a beautiful soft curve to it. Um, and it flows down the steps beautifully.

[00:08:11]It really is a lovely dress to wear.

[00:08:16]And it appears I am definitely too early for the guests, but I will just take a quick turn around the room and just check that everything's in order before the guests arrive.

[00:08:29]And I'll give you a quick twirl so that you can see how the dress moves. So there you go, a copy of a fashion plate from Lamode Artistic 1873.

[00:08:40]I really hope that you enjoyed this video. If you did, please remember to like and subscribe and give me a hype if you can. Much appreciated. And I'll see you in the next video. Bye.