Why Did Victorian Women Change Their Clothing 5 times a Day? | An Explanation

Adelaide - This was my Grandmother. So yes it means I am not far off of 90 myself. Father was born 1902 the last of 4 children. Grandfather was a moderately well known London architect and they lived in the country a trains ride from London. They had a maid of all work, a gardener and an ostler to see to the horse and carriage. But life was not easy, grandmother did much of the work like bottling fruit, washing and ironing and seeing to the children. But father remembers her in what he called Merry Widow style clothes. She pinned brushes under the back of the dress to pick up the mud and horse dirt, they were removed and washed. My father as a boy was dressed in a sailor suit and hat to be taken to the local town in the carriage to go shopping. Grandma saw me as a baby and I have a photo of her holding me, but she died soon after. I studied Historical Costume myself at Art School in the 50s and have remained interested all my life. A very good video and well made clothes.

modern men: women take so long to get ready! victorian women: hold my basket

I just had a weird flashback to my childhood where i had "play clothes", school clothes, house clothes, "good clothes". I used to think it was an germ phobia of something but my Great-grandmother, Grandmother, and Mother were raised this way. My family made 99.9% of whatever was worn other then under garmets or super special occasions. I was blessed enough to have inherhited a closet of period clothing(damn me for being born waay taller and fuller is chest then all the previous women in my family).

By God's mercy. Watching this just made me beyond grateful for my leggings and shirt. Not gonna lie, that silhouette was divine, but all those buttons and layers of cloth would kill me. Thanks for the wholesome content! 🤩

I love the little time anchoring bits-“when your mother was a girl” “when you got married”- it really helps with the timeline and humanizes the fashion as things worn by people instead of just pretty pictures

This was hilarious! Are we really so different today though? I eat breakfast in my pajamas, change to office attire for an 8-hour gauntlet of zoom calls and excel wrangling, then change into comfy clothes to cook, clean, and relax at the end of the day, then back into a cozy robe or pajamas for one last round of Youtube binging before bed...

My father was born in 1892 and was one of five children. They lived in Brooklyn and my Grandfather worked for a haberdashery with Jane Fonda's grandfather. I remember my father and Grandmother were always so well dressed. Impeccable. And after my father died, my mother remarked that she never in all their years of marriage had to pick up one sock or any clothes that he dropped on the floor. Today is Veterans' Day. My father fought in all seven major European battles in WW One. The trenches were awful. Thank God we won.

My grandfather was the youngest of 22 children, all single births! Seriously, my great grandmother was the british equivalent of “Irish Maggie” who wore the same dress all the time, but a succession of aprons, worn one on top of the other. A sacking apron on top for clearing the grates, scrubbing the floors and etc. under that the housework apron, for dusting, sweeping etc, anther one for kitchen prep and taking food deliveries at the kitchen door. Finally the neat white apron for answering the door to visitors! I used to use “Granny’s Aprons” as a maths project with my first grade classes!

This one inspired me to actually do the household chores for today, I put on an apron and pretended I have to explain all the wonders of modern living to a victorian woman

My grandma and most of the women in the town washed clothes on Mondays. They were hung up till almost dry then she'd usually roll them loosely and iron them the next day. Baking was done on Tuesdays or Wednesdays and Market days were Thursdays and Saturdays (the days the farmer's markets were held). Sweeping and trash burning was done on Fridays. If anyone burned trash on any other day they were considered an a-hole (it might have been even illegal) because the soot would get on things like laundry or if someone were painting.

My great grandmother had 22 children! Only two died and they were two boys who were killed in WW1 fighting in France. A story was that if my family walked out of a certain factory it would close down! Thanks so much for the video. I studied costume and costume history, what a faff!!!

Hi Adelaide - thank you for such informative videos. I was raised by my grand-mother (born 1889, died at 102 years of age). My grand-mother was a college graduate but according to local customs, had to get married "... cause that was the purpose of a woman to raise a family..." The community married her to a farmer of the same age. Despite being raised on a farm, riding horses, doing farming chores, I never saw my grand-mother wearing pants or shorts. She always wore a skirt or a dress, with or w/o an apron for house/garden work. She made her own clothes (and mine). I am amazed on all the work that older generations did without the niceties that we enjoy. Thank you for sharing part of our history with younger generations, Ciao, L

My grandmother was part of that Victorian stereotype. She was only 8 years old when her parents sent her to work for another family. She had to clean, cook and do everything else that no one wanted to do in exchange for money being sent back home to her parents. This was in Europe. She ended up moving to the U.S. as a young adult with her husband. She had 7 kids (2 died as infants) My Dad was born as a first generation American. I cannot imagine being shipped to another family at such a young age to do hard work. Not to mention moving to a country where you don’t know the language. The Victorian era seemed so glamorous but when we dig a little deeper, we see how difficult it was for some people. Thank you for the video, I really enjoyed it.

We're really not all that different now. I get up, change into my scrubs, go to work, come home, change OUT of my scrubs and into cozy home clothes, probably change again if I need to go to the store or something, and would also need a specialized outfit if I were going to a party or planning to work out. The Victorian wardrobe only seems weird to us because of the relative complexity and time required, but we still have functional costume changes today.

I’m a middle class house wife and I have several outfits I wear a day. A sturdy house outfit for cleaning, work out clothes, a nice outfit for picking up the kids and talking to other moms, back into the cleaning outfit! Then a pajama set.

Wow. That brings back memories of my grandmother. She was born in 1881, and there were pictures of her as a very young woman. She had her hair in a Gibson Girl hairdo, and she wore a high neck blouse, with the pintucks in the front, the legolamb sleeves, with the corset and the petticoats under a skirt that flared in the back. Of course, she also had the shoes that button up. They had a black manservant, who had just stayed doing what he did, even after he was emancipated. He was just part of the family. My mom called him "Uncle Theodore". Nanny still wore a corset when I was a little girl. And the black special occasion dress with the lace collar. One day she went wild, and bought a bright red hat, though, lol. The world went from horse and buggy to the men on the moon in her lifetime.

honestly the modern equivalent would be changing out of your PJs into your athletic wear for a morning workout if you have one, then changing into work clothes, whatever those are for your profession, and then changing into more casual clothing (or athletic wear for an evening workout) for after work, before changing into you PJs once again for bedtime. I usually change about three or four times a day, personally. And of course we have specialized clothing as well, swimsuits and cycling clothing might look different today, but they still exist. Motor cyclists have their own special gear, and I've got an entire wardrobe of outdoor clothing for multiday hikes and camping.

This was so fun and informative. I pity the husband trying to put all the 27 children in bed alone! In Finland the hats symbolised upper class. The working class people wore square scarves that were folded diagonally and tied under the chin. My grandma, who was a farm wife, still wore a scarf until she died. I think she only tool hers off to sleep and to wash. Hats became more common in cities and then the countryfolk were gossiping about those folks that moved to the city and came back wearing a hat!

My takeaway is that life was very structured during that time. Women learned to push aside discomforts like being sick, tired or stress and were cornerstones in their home. Their personal appearance carried over how their family was viewed. My mother had tried to get my great grandmother to wear a pair of pants under her dress in the winters of western New York in the snow belt, and she thought it was rubbish for women to wear men's clothes! :)

My Nanna was Clarice Adelaide, she sadly passed in 1999. She still wore a corset, bloomers, stockings attached to the corset, underskirt, full slip for bust & down to mid thigh, underskirt/petticoat. Only in the summer heat would she consider taking off anything.