19th Century European Dress
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 1,500 items of nineteenth-century European dress dating from 1800 to 1900. This collection encompasses men's wear, women's wear, children's and infants' wear, accessories and lace, including several items of very high quality. It represents the working-class best day and middle-class clothing, reflecting the importance of the Strathclyde area as a leading textile manufacturing region and Glasgow’s dominance as a major dressmaking and retail centre.
With the fall of the French monarchy in the 1790s the centre of fashion moved from Versailles to Paris, where it was led by the court of Emperor Napoleon I (1769–1821) and his wives, Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763–1814), who he divorced in 1810, and Marie Louise of Austria (1791–1847). Fashions were inspired by the classical dress of Ancient Greece, resulting in slim-lined, high-waisted gowns accessorized with soft, draping Kashmir shawls. Other historical revivals, such as Gothick and Van Dyck, followed leading to decorative elements that widened the shoulders and hem. Menswear, which had been refined by the English preference for dark coloured coats that emphasized good tailoring, became dandified during the reign of George IV (1762–1830) and his brother William IV (1765–1837).
When their niece Queen Victoria (1819–1901) succeeded to the throne in 1837, she and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coberg and Gotha (1819–61), were keen to support British industry, often making patriotic rather than purely fashionable choices – Victoria's wedding dress in 1840 showcased Honiton lace from Devon. Meanwhile France continued to lead fashions, with Empress Eugénie (1826–1920) of France providing patronage to a young Englishman, Charles Frederick Worth (1825–95). When Worth reopened his business in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian war he became the first true couturier, showing his own label designs each season for clients to select from.
The 1800s revolutionised the fashion industry. Key inventions such as sewing machines, aniline dyes and paper patterns helped enable the mass production of garments. Magazines with hand-coloured fashion prints spread the news of what was in and out of fashion and helped to fuel demand, which in turn was met by the establishment of large warehouses that by the mid-1800s had become department stores, which dominated the shopping streets of towns and cities across the country.
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19th Century European Dress Accessories
19th Century European Infants' and Children's Wear
19th Century European Men's Wear
19th Century European Night and Dressing Wear
19th Century European Outerwear
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