The “counter” Victorian fashion movement, Aesthetics. These were artisans, craftsmen, and designers committed to maintaining the highest quality of fabric, texture, line, and design in response to what they felt was “crass” mass production.
Getting their concepts from the “Pre-Raphaelites” who were a “rebellious” artistic movement (“Pre-Raphaelites” were protesting the formula type of art where light, composition, subject, and content were dictated by strict rules – thus wanting to go back in time before the “Raphaelites” who made all the rules came into power in the art world), the Aesthetics used the “Pre-Raphaelite concepts of eroticism, mysticism, mythological themes combined with artistic draping and fabulous colors, organic forms, fabrics, and notions to build what looked very much like the Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Their influence would blend and merge with “Art Nouveau” .
A key Aesthetic rule was that there were to be NO CORSETS, and NO UNDERSTRUCTURES. They felt the forms and messages would convey enough. A few women embraced their designs, but most of the Aesthetic models and real life customers were considered quite radical for the time.
(Photos: left – Violet Lindsay; right – Jane Morris (wife of the founder) – both about 1894 in Aesthetic Dress. They were the key champions for the cause, and don’t they look happy??)