{"id":159,"date":"2018-09-04T09:41:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T13:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/?p=159"},"modified":"2024-12-12T19:32:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T00:32:01","slug":"the-impossible-ideal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/the-impossible-ideal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impossible Ideal: Victorian Fashion and Femininity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

September 21 \u2013 December 14, 2018<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Victorian era (1837-1901), named for the reign of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, is known for extreme expressions of women\u2019s fashion, and for a narrow definition of women\u2019s roles in society. Tight-laced corsets, wide hoop skirts, bustles, and trains exaggerated women\u2019s forms while restricting their movement and activity. Thus fashion, and the popular magazines that promoted it, reinforced the \u201ccult of domesticity\u201d\u2014the idea that women\u2019s place was in the home and not the public sphere. This feminine ideal belonged to an urban leisure class, excluding great swaths of rural or working class populations. Mass print culture also implicitly and explicitly promoted a vision of the ideal woman as white and Protestant rather than any other race or religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as mainstream periodicals promoted the Victorian cult of domesticity, they also provided a forum for debate about the \u201cwoman question:\u201d to what degree should women be educated, seek work outside the home, and have certain rights within marriage, including the right to divorce. These discussions were evidence of a growing restlessness on the part of women, and an ambivalence on the part of the magazines\u2019 editors and contributors, many of them female. While mid-century styles reflected the restrictiveness of women\u2019s roles, by the 1890s fashion evolved to express increasing autonomy. Sleeker skirts, broader shoulders, lighter fabrics, and suit styles that mimicked menswear gave women greater freedom of movement, representing how more women were venturing outside the home for education, excercise, or to work for philanthropic or activist causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through women\u2019s clothing and accessories from the Fleming Museum\u2019s collection, along with excerpts from popular American women\u2019s magazines such as Godey\u2019s Lady\u2019s Book<\/em> and Peterson\u2019s Magazine<\/em>, this exhibition explores how fashion embodied the many contradictions of Victorian women\u2019s lives, and, eventually, the growing call for more diverse definitions of women\u2019s roles and identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victorian era dresses photographed in the Marble Court<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Victorian<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LEFT:  Ballgown, about 1860. Green and cream silk satin, embroidered with changeable green silk thread. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Falls  1960.20.43 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RIGHT:   Suit-style two-piece dress, about 1895. Black and red silk with red silk and white lace. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James Thomas, Terrill Hall Collection  1987.11.570<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Snowy Day,\u201d fashion plate from Peterson\u2019s Magazine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cThe<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Illman Brothers (active Philadelphia, 1860s-1890s), \u201cThe Snowy Day,\u201d fashion plate from Peterson\u2019s Magazine (detail), January 1881. Hand-colored engraving. Museum Collection  2006.3.173 LA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bustle, about 1875. Steel and linen.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Bustle,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bustle, about 1875. Steel and linen. Gift of Misses Marguerite and Elsa Allen  1936.44.11<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 21 \u2013 December 14, 2018 The Victorian era (1837-1901), named for the reign of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, is known for extreme expressions of women\u2019s fashion, and for a narrow definition of women\u2019s roles in society. Tight-laced corsets, wide hoop skirts, bustles, and trains exaggerated women\u2019s forms while restricting their movement and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Impossible Ideal: Victorian Fashion and Femininity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10094,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collections","category-exhibitions","tag-fleming-collections","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Staff","author_link":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/author\/rlmoreau\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/flemingmuseumofart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}