.. Empress Josephine of France.  From the days of the French Revolution starting in 1793, until 1815 when Napoleon was overthrown and exiled, Josephine ruled the world of “little white dresses” as they became more embellished through 3 stages of Regency fashion. While Regency would continue until about 1828, there …

Marie Antoinette – wife of King Louis XVI of France during the Georgian/Colonial era (1760’s until her beheading in 1793).  She introduced Court “high” fashion of paniers and stomachers, and “low” fashion of the Gaulle.

… which was roughly 1890 until the “explosion” of ideas and concepts at the start of World War I in 1915, featured the dominant “S” monobosom silhouette before the waist dropped quickly with the sub-category of Edwardian, Art Nouveau and Titanic fashion eras (1900-1909 and 1912 respectively). (Sketch:  1900-1910l 194 …

… Edwardian.  The 1860’s to 1880’s under the English Queen went from crinolines to bustles to no bustles to big bustles to gigantic sleeves and just kept going. By the 1890’s, Victoria’s fashion dictates were being usurped by the new English King Edward’s ideas.  Fashion exploded as it split into …

… There were 3-4 evolutions of Victorian style, with crossovers and modifications, but basically there was “early”, which was like ornamented Regency, “middle” with bustles and crinolines, and “late” with more bustles and the black for mourning and white for weddings dictates. 1830-1855 as shown was “early”.

… 3.  1790-1805 (ish) had Greek and Roman influence.  Evolved from political factors such as the French Revolution, social developments like the counter revolutionary “Incroyables” fashion movement, and informational from what queens and empresses were wearing – this time period introduced “the little white dress”. With discoveries in archaeology and …

… 1775 to 1800 were “late” Georgian or Colonial if you were in America.  This was a time of the basic “sacque” robe (gown or dress) and it’s many variations as it went up, then out, then up and out, etc.  The common factor during all the changes were the …

.. we’ve two more key fashion figures in the 1740 to 1914 time period we cover.  We’ll review the ones we know this week, but first – let’s review what the fashion eras are. It’s important to note there is no EXACT line between eras.  Women were wearing their old …

The life of a princess was rather lonely.  Victoria’s best friend was her cocker spaniel, Dash, shown in this portrait of her in the 1830’s.

Before we discuss Queen Victoria, we found this photo of Beatriz and her sister late in their lives (about the 1960’s); proving that age cannot diminish fashion.