Check out the slideshow. The 2nd pic is the best.
I find the Victorian look kind of intriguing. Might be a nice change from jeans and T’s. We’ve been wearing that uniform since the 60’s. I wonder how comfortable the clothing is? It looks like it would be a little hot. But, the Victorians wore it in the days before air conditioning. It couldn’t be all that bad.
Anyone want to trade in their jeans for a vest and top hat? 
That looks pretty cool. Actually, pretty hot as you said - and fussy!
Raychyl Whyte?
Someone get me a gaggy smiley.
Yes, it’s a bit hot with the layers. If you’re used to t-shirts, you’re going to bake in a high-collared, long sleeve shirt, waistcoat and surcoat. Not to mention the ascot and topper.
Performers at the Dickens Christmas Fair look forward to being able to pop backstage where it’s about 40-50 degrees to cool off. Despite being theatrically set at Christmastime, and physically being produced in an unheated warehouse space in San Francisco in December, we’d still get a handful of people dropping with heat exhaustion.
I don’t think interiors were as well heated as they are today, so a lot of layers was a good thing 111 years ago in wintertime, in most of Europe, the UK, and America. And whenever you arrived anywhere there was someone who would take and look after your hat and topcoat–or at least there was a place to put them.
Most of the year in L.A. I go around in jeans and T-shirts; hardly ever is it cold enough that I can comfortably wear more than a light sweater. It would be difficult for me to carry off the Victorian look with any conviction.
Too hot and fussy for everyday. Looks like fun for now and then though.
I remember hearing about some woman wanting a Victorian wedding, but she had to give it up because the bridesmaids did nothing but bitch about wearing the dresses.
When I was a kid I was a pretty big history buff and used to emulate those old style fashions as best I could. I’d roll my jeans up to my knees and then pull my socks all the way up and tuck them into my pant cuffs so as to look like the old 18th-century breeches. My mom even made a tricorn hat for me out of black felt. I was the nerdiest little dork of the entire 1980’s…
Very cool to see people bringing the old fashions back. I’d like to see it catch on. I remember watching some show on the History Channel a while back, something about either the Civil War or Old West gunfighters. One of the present-day historians they interviewed was this guy with a huge curly moustache, 19th-century suit, and one of those ribbon bow ties. I thought it was awesome.
I read some vintage sewing blogs with great interest, and recently found a very cool one where a woman with an interest in WWII England is going to make her wardrobe items for the year with 1941 ration coupons. (That is, she gets X number of coupons, and if she makes a skirt it costs Y, and when she runs out, no more clothes. Lots of planning!) She posts great stuff about quality, design, making do or making over, etc.
One recent topic has been the cold. She listed what one Edwardian lady put on one morning–tons of layers, but in an English winter, very practical and warm. Meanwhile I live in quite a warm climate and the idea of wearing all those clothes makes me dizzy with anticipatory heatstroke.
I was hoping this was going to be about 1990s styles coming back in.
My flannel shirts and I are still waiting!
At some point fashion becomes costume. This is that point.
Go down that road, and suddenly you’re the guy wearing a costume to the grocery store on a Wednesday afternoon in August.
I have a ton of unworn “leisure suits”-maybe they will be back in style?
I think they’re aesthetically pleasing, but I think they’re too fussy to catch on. I mean, aspects come back (corsets and ruffled skirts have come back big time in goth fashion, ascots are coming back in men’s formal wear, etc.) But the full-out suits, constant corsets, etc.? Never gonna hit mainstream.
Probably not, no.
I could see it becoming a trend for weddings, maybe, but not every day.
Flannel shirts are back for females. At least on the urban street level.
ETA: I guess not actually flannel…but that same check pattern.
Exactly what I was about to say.
All the folks mentioned in the linked article represent a fringe group… it’s no different than interviewing a group of really enthusiastic SCAdians who wear garb full-time and extrapolating that the houpellande is about to make a comeback, or deciding that watch gears will be next season’s hot look after photographing a bunch of steampunk cosplayers.
There’s zero chance that formal Victorian styles could ever make a comeback in mainstream fashion (and even if they do, I have no intention of following the trend… I’ve had to make a dash for the bus whilst wearing a corset and petticoats often enough to know it’s not something I want to wear for an everyday commute).
I recall quite a few years back, some of the jackets and suit popular in the 1930’s came back in style. There was even a retro song, Puttin’ on the Ritz, from 1929 that was a hit in 1982. The 30’s were popular, again, for a short time. 