It's fashionable to deride Victorian style as over-ornamented, cloyingly sentimental and uptight. But it's also unabashedly feminine, and that's why a new generation of women is falling for its charms.
Lace blouses, velvet and brocade jackets, skirts with ruffles or bustles, ribbon trims and accessories such as cameo earrings, jet and pearl necklaces are showing up at holiday parties.
Lindsay Lohan models a high-necked Valentino blouse on the cover of the winter issue of Teen Vogue. Rachel Zoe, who styled Lohan for the cover and works with other young celebrities like Nicole Richie, said she finds the look "very Victorian and of the moment."
Designer Jessica McClintock revisited the era because she appreciates both its history and femininity.
"My great-great-grandparents came from England and Wales," McClintock said in a phone interview from her San Francisco headquarters. "I made clothes with Victorian details and went through a phase of doing blouses in the 1970s. So many women have come into my stores and asked why I don't do them again."
While best known for her prom dresses, McClintock said she and her son and business partner Scott were looking for ways to expand the definition of special-occasion wear when they came up with the idea of Victorian-inspired separates.
"I wanted to offer other choices for dressing up. I live in the city where Gap and Levi's are based, and I know how much Americans are into casual clothes and jeans, so I experimented with jackets, skirts and blouses they could wear in a very modern way."
Femininity underscores the designs. "I like shapes that are very pretty and fitted and detailed, not with a lot of frills and froufrou, but darts, pintucks and little buttons," she said.
More than teenagers are going for the look. "Our Las Vegas store said a lot of women over 40 were buying the New Victorian collection," the designer said.
Such manufacturers as Necessary Objects and retailers like Anthropologie are on a similar track, offering jackets with peplums, blouses with high necks and such combin-ations of fabric as lace, crochet and Swiss dot.
What makes women melt at the sight of such sweetness? Jennifer Ogle, associate professor in the department of design and merchandising at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, said the Victorian vibe is catching on for several reasons.
"There's an emphasis on nostalgia -- we're harking back to an earlier time with its positive aesthetics and sentiments," Ogle said. "It's also a reaction to the fact that in recent years we've had more simplistic styles for men and women that were androgynous. So there's a reaction to that, a turn back to more feminine clothing."
Women entering the work force world in the 1980s adopted a masculine style of dress to fit in, Ogle added. Two decades later, "women have come so far along, maybe they don't need to do that to be taken seriously any more," she said.
Women are picking and choosing the elements of Victoriana they want to adopt. A bustier can be worn as an outer garment rather than be hidden under an outfit. A velvet jacket teams with jeans and heels for the office.
"To borrow from the past is a way to add uniqueness to your wardrobe," Ogle said. "In the Victorian era, there was one way to look. Women today have much more variety."
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
RSS