Gilded Age fashion changes in styles and technology

The fashion of the Gilded Age in America is Victorian fashion, the clothing styles and trends that emerged and developed in British culture in the United Kingdom and British Empire from roughly the 1830s through 1900. The period saw many changes in styles, fashion technology, and methods of distribution.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 1 hr 23 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   the fashion of the gilded age in america · Wikipedia · 49 min read

   In 1856, the invention of the first cage crinoline allowed for wider skirts than petticoats could, as technological advancement made cage crinolines possible. Although often ridiculed by journalists and cartoonists of the time as the crinoline swelled in size, it freed women from the heavy weight of petticoats and made it easier to move in their dresses. Late Victorian hats in the fashion of the gilded age in america were decorated with silk flowers, ribbons, exotic plumes, and sometimes entire stuffed exotic birds. By 1900, more than five million birds a year were being slaughtered, and nearly 95 per cent of Florida's shore birds had been killed by plume hunters.

2. Read
   Gilded Age Fashion - Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service) · nps.gov · 11 min read

   In the 1870s, clothing was often vibrantly colored thanks to increased use of synthetic dyes, which were still a fairly new innovation. Women's clothing featured multiple colors in the same outfit, something that was uncommon prior to this decade.

3. Watch
   

   Are the Victorians Responsible for Fast Fashion? Ft. Dress Historian Dr Serena Dyer · YouTube · 23 min watch

   The video "Are the Victorians Responsible for Fast Fashion?" features dress historian Dr Serena Dyer.

4. Book
   

   The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today · Bookshop.org

   The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner describes a society where the lust for getting rich through land speculation pervades, beneath a thin layer of gold over baser metal.

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