No gain without pain for Victorian fashionistas

AN ANGUS museum is celebrating 200 years of costume and fashion.

Frills And Furbelows at Brechin Town House Museum opened yesterday and runs until Saturday, from 10am to 5pm.

The exhibition provides a glimpse of the high waists of the Regency period and the time of Jane Austen.

The crinoline dresses of the Victorian years with their impossibly tiny waists and often extravagant fashions also feature alongside the simple styles of the 40s.

The exhibition proves women clearly did suffer for the sake of fashion, just as many do today with high heels and plastic surgery.

Large crinolines, protruding bustles and heavily boned corsets often did restrict movement.

Technological change in the late 19th and early 20th century led to new designs in underwear, which often made life easier for women – as well as more complicated.

At the same time, new attitudes towards health and comfort and participation in sport meant that women were actually becoming much more aware of their bodies and the harm that could be done by restrictive underwear.

A museum spokesperson said: “With impossibly tiny waists, the costumes show that Victorian ladies suffered for their fashion sense.

“Fashion styles became simpler in the 40s, mainly due to the effects of rationing during the war.

“As can been seen by the utility clothing on show.

“Must-have accessories from the times are also on display and bear little resemblance to what today’s fashonistas would wear or use.”

The dangers and inconveniences of wearing the cage were much publicised at the time and included being unable to fit into carriages or through narrow doorways.

A display of paintings with costumes as a common theme compliments the exhibition.

Artists on display include James Watterson Herald and AB Middleton.

Museum assistant Wendy Findlay with a Dressmaker’s Doll.