Fashion in Photographs

Over 150 period photographs are featured in this book, showing a wide variety of dress worn between 1880 and 1900. Although some of the photographs are studio portraits by the leading photographers of the day there are photographs of middle-class Victorians too: intellectuals, artists, eccentrics, and businessmen, whose sober, practical garb is in telling contrast to the lavish fabrics and impractical designs worn by high society. The source of illustration is the National Portrait Gallery Archive which contains a collection of over 100,000 photographs and original negatives. Sarah Levitt's selection principally comprises photographs never before published. It also contains some unfamiliar images of well-known historical figures, such as Henry Irving, Queen Victoria, Camille Saint-SaIns, Lillie Langtry and many more. Each photograph is accompanied by a full caption that not only describes both costume and accessories, but also goes on to explain how and where the clothes were made; what they felt like to wear; how the fashions developed; and how the clothes were cleaned and cared for.
To do this, the author has supported original research with contemporary quotations and anecdotes from diaries, fashion magazines, newspapers and other Victorian memorabilia. This book is an absorbing and informative account of the fashion and social history of this period, and will be enjoyed by everyone interested in fashion, photography, and the Victorian age.