It's no secret that Queen Victoria is one of my favourite monarchs in history, alongside Mary Queen of Scots. Both such fierce women in a very male dominated world. Queen Victoria was actually born Alexandrina Victoria and took the name Victoria at her coronation in 1838 at the ripe age of 18.  Queen Victoria was the longest reigning monarch in history until our very own Queen, Queen Elizabeth II took her place.  Being the fifth in line for the throne, no one knew she would become Queen. Her grandfather was King George III, his son and heir to the throne...

Dark Thorn Debuts 'Highland' at Paris Fashion Week South Australian designer Tori-Anne Gill launches Highland, the latest collection from her Dark Thorn label, which made its debut at this year's Paris Fashion Week. Paying homage to the fashions of the 18th century Scotland and reminiscent of Outlander, Highland is inspired by Tori-Anne's recent trip to the land of her ancestry. Here she fell madly in love with the country's landscapes, history and culture. "Highland is inspired by the culture of the Scottish Highlands in the 18th century and embraces Black Watch tartan which is woven in Scotland from 100% British...

By 1883 the bustle came back and bigger than ever. Bustles were now stuffed with straw and enabled the skirt to come horizontally out from the waist. The skirts still remained thin around the front and sides and the bodice came back to above the hips. High necklines were extremely popular even all the way into the afternoon and gowns were extremely tailored with vests, jackets or were made to give the illusion of a vest or jacket. A lot of drapery covered dresses which meant there were not longer many spaces left for trimmings.  Evening gowns came up to...

Natural Form In 1877 the bustle had shrunken to the point where just pads were used or in most cases absolutely nothing at all. The bodices became long and even extended over the hips.  Princess dresses became extremely popular. This is a one piece dress that doesn't have a waist seam. This gives the illusion of being tall and slim which became a popular figure. Skirts clung to the legs with a string inside to tie the skirt close to the legs at the front but allow the back to be free falling. Over skirts became less popular and were...

Towards the start of the 1870's the hoop skirt was soon replaced with a metal structure known as a bustle.  The bustle still kept fullness at the front but allowed more fabric and layers to create more fullness at the back of dresses. Most of the dresses were trained but walking dresses are still floor length.  Knee length overskirts were still popular. If you look at the image below knee length overskirts look like an apron/tunic.  At the start of the 1870's bodices ended at he natural waist and were often belted around the waist or tied with a large...

Hoop Era introduced the Crinoline. Once looked down upon by those in the high society they eventually gave in to wearing the crinoline instead of the numerous layers of petticoats to get the desired skirt width. The lower class wore the crinolines as a cheap way to get the desired width in the skirts as they couldn't effort the extreme layers of petticoats that those in the high society could. All the petticoat layers eventually got extremely hot in the summer climates that the high society eventually took the idea back on board. Because of the crinolines long drawers were...