Fashions from the Girl's Own Annual, 1885-1886

The Girl's Own Paper began in 1880. Unlike its counterpart, The Boy's Own Paper, which specialised in adventure stories, the G.O.P. contained domestic and romantic fiction, along with good advice on health, beauty, cookery, clothing - and careers!

Through the Victorian era the Girl's Own Paper published a fashion column once a month. These were aimed at older "girls" - young women, really - from the prosperous, if not wealthy, middle classes. They described the ups and downs, and fads and fancies of fashion, offered dressmaking advice for those who wanted to follow the trends on a limited budget - and unlike today's fashion publications, never hesitated to criticize or admonish.

Looking back, these fashion columns give us an excellent picture of mainstream, if not ultra-fashionable, Victorian fashion. The following is a selection from one annual volume of The Girl's Own Paper.

"The greatest drawback, however, to all the bonnets and hats now worn is their extreme height. They seem becoming to no one. Tall people look like moving mountains of millinery - that is, a mountain with a very sharp peak, of course; and to short people they are a dreadful drawback, for they look all hat, with hardly any face at all under it."

"The high collars are worn as much as ever to all dresses. In some cases, where the wearers have short necks, they must prove as great a punishment as the very high stock did in the old days to our soldiers, and until somebody proved that it had killed hundreds on long marches by producing apoplexy, the wise authorities who take care of the soldier did not abolish its use. I do not think the high collar produces apoplexy, but it must be unmitigated torture."

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 31st of October 1885

"To all appearance we are gradually coming back to the long, plain skirts worn twenty or thirty years ago, before we ever heard of such a thing as an "overskirt". To some people - the short, stout, and ungraceful - the change will be for the better, for the much bunched-up skirts did not suit them, and took from their small amount of height. But with the long straight folds, the very tall and very thin people must beware, for they add to their maypole appearance by assuming too austere a style, and great regularity in vertical lines is sometimes a decided mistake.

"And here I must put in a note of entreaty to my girl-readers not to avail themselves of any of the poor little dead birds which are now much worn. I was told by a lady the other day that she had seen a poor wee birdie on a bonnet in a shop that positively had a drop of blood on its beak! Could bad taste go further?"

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 28th of November 1885

"The return to a style of more simplicity in draping skirts is a great advantage of many people, but none of our readers should forget that in case of thin, unformed figures it is mere cruelty to them and others to put them into a perfectly undraped frock, and that intelligence and taste must always be brought to bear on all such questions, whatever fashion may dictate at the moment. Fortunately, too, we are now more emancipated from the old-fashioned ideas of costume, and there is more room for individual taste and thought in all matters."

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 26th of December, 1885

"What are known as tailor-made gowns have bright coloured vests, which may be of leather, velvet, plush or satin. The skirts are very plain, and little draped, and the bodices are cut after the fashion of habit bodices.

"For the evening dress we are again threatened with the train. I am glad to say, however, that many people seem quite determined to allow no such innovation to creep into daylight, and the present skirt, useful, short and sensible, seems well seated in everyone's affections...

"Fur is more worn this winter than it has been for some time back. The new idea is to make it into bindings, pipings, and edgings of the narrowest width possible ... Long boas have returned to fashion. They go twice around the neck, and some of them reach nearly to the feet."

"The tea-gown, or loose Princess robe is a very pretty model for an indoor dress. The material may be of woollen, the fronts being faced with coloured silk."

"One thing grieves me not a little in the millinery of the winter, and that is the lavish use of birds of all kinds. The other day I saw a fashionable dame, who wore a bonnet quite surrounded with little wee birds sitting around the edge - a sight to make one weep! Even the commonest birds appear to be slaughtered, such as the house sparrow. I cannot understand how tender-hearted women and girls can don such cruel trophies of the sufferings of the feathered creation, and I should feel glad if none of our G. O. P. readers would countenance such wicked, useless wholesale murder of God's innocent creatures.

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 23rd of January, 1886

"There seems but little to say about new styles or ideas in the month of February. It is too early to think of getting new things, and our winter dresses are not sufficiently worn to need repair, and yet, with the increasing light, they will show wear in March, so it is worth our while to try and be prepared in time for anything that may happen. I feel sure that, to be dressed with economy and taste, all women need much prevision. The extravagant woman or girl is always unprepared.

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 27th of February, 1886

"There seems no chance now of the return of the crinoline; even the much-puffed hips, which are liked in Paris, are not popular here. The skirts are much fuller, certainly, but steels seem no longer worn, and with the full drapery and the mattress of horsehair at the waist, the best-dressed and most ladylike women are satisfied."

"The new style for the spring is to wear shoes, not boots. In fact, the former have been steadily gaining in favour during the last year, and this winter few boots have been in comparison with shoes. For the fine weather walking shoes will be made of patent leather, or of kid, with patent leather toes, while for the house we shall have red morocco, combined with patent leather, with small buckles or tiny bows."

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 27th of March, 1886

"For all deep and even for slight mourning dull jet is considered more suitable than the bright, and the passementerie and beaded trimmings even are made of mohair so as to be very black and not at all glossy. Panels of crape and dull jet are used to trim even deep mourning dresses, and many tabliers of jet beads are sold. These trimmings will be found very useful to those of my readers who have to "do up" their mourning this spring. A handsome dress that has been covered with crape can be quite renewed by having the crape cleaned, the style of draping changed, and the new trimmings of dull jet introduced. The modern method of "dry cleaning", as invented by the French, is a great assistance to the economical, as dresses can be cleaned without being picked to pieces, though all trimmings should be taken off."

"It seems a fortunate thing that the quantities of ribbon, the stiff loops and ends which stand up in a perfect forest above the forehead, leave little room for the birds and parts of birds which have been the ornaments of the winter. So now, perhaps, we may at last see a disposition to spare our poor feathered companions on the earth."

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 24th of April, 1886

"The illustrations of hairdressing show all the ordinary methods in vogue at present amongst girls, and it will be seen that they are much simplified, and rather less frizzy than they were a few months ago.

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker,29th of May, 1886

"One of the changes worth of notice this season in London is, that hats are now worn so much more in town than they used to be, and on occasions when no one would have thought of wearing one. Formerly to wear a hat was considered the worst "form" in London, even for young and unmarried women. This year not only girls but matrons, young and middle-aged, wear them, both in the morning and afternoon also.

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 26th of June, 1886

"Bonnets and hats are as high as ever, and what with the height and the heavy trimmings are most difficult to keep on. The fancy headed pins I have mentioned are by no means reliable holders on of a bonnet, so the real work is performed by means of small black-headed pins - about three inches long, three or four being used - a plan which strikes me as being very likely to destroy the bonnet by the numberless holes they would make, and also would be productive of continual headaches from the dragging and pulling at the roots of the hair."

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 31st of July, 1886

"The times have changed since we used to have a dozen frocks and gowns. Now we manage with four or five, perhaps even less; and we get a great deal more wear out of them than we did. Our tailor-made gown is used where, in the old days, we should have worn a silk; but in return we now wear silk a great deal, where formerly a cheaper fabric would have done..."

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 28th of August, 1886

"This year we have needed flannel underwear more than ever, and of all kinds, to protect us from the constant changes of the weather. The extreme heat of July was succeeded by cold easterly winds for a fortnight or more, and the wonder was that we any of us escaped from illness or cold."

"Some very, very large fans have made their appearance, to be used, I should think, in place of umbrellas. They are seventeen inches long when shut, and when open they measure one yard and twelve inches round the edge. They are all inexpensive, being made of cotton, chintz, and Japanese paper."

"Dress in Season and In Reason", by a Lady Dressmaker, 25th of September, 1886

Suggested reading: Wendy Forrester Great-Grandmama's weekly: a celebration of The Girl's Own Paper 1880-1901 (Guilford and London: Lutterworth Press, 1980. ISBN 0718824504)