Historians break Victorian fashion into eras…

… and there were many as Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.  In the beginning, most fashions lasted about a decade, but by the mid 1850’s, mass communication and mass production had improved so much that by 1901 the history of fashion was moving in almost a yearly cycle.

Silhouettes breaks down the eras into six using key features like bustles, crinolines, and sleeves into “early,””mid”,”late”, and “pre-Edwardian.

There were actually many,  many more subcategories and countermovements such as aesthetic and reform dress in those years (as per sketch featured).