In my quest to discover what it was truly like to wear the clothes of an Edwardian woman, I discovered the wonderful, bubbly and highly-praised reenactment actress, Kandie Carle. Through period-correct clothing and undergarments, Carle shares intriguing anecdotes and facts about the history of the undergarments, etiquette, leisure activities and home life of women and men of the Civil War, Victorian and Edwardian eras! Her level of expertise was too good to pass up, and with strength and humor matching our Victorian & Edwardian forbears, Ms. Carle kindly took time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions and in the process, clear up a few misconceptions about both women and women’s clothing.

What attracts you to the Victorian/Edwardian era?

Initially it was my family history. I have photos of my Great-Grandmother in the 1890s. Then, doing research on different time periods as an actress, I was intrigued by the women I was reading about. Then, in 1992 I began dancing in a vintage dance performance group and my research had to branch out into the clothing and fashion in particular. As a seamstress I made my own clothing for the balls and dance demos. From there, I was hooked. I loved so much abut the women of the Victorian and Edwardian time periods, their attempts to get the vote, their moving into the workforce, and yet keeping their femininity. I also appreciated the beauty. If you say anything about the time period, you must say it was lovely. The hair, the clothes, the automobiles, home furnishings, even their calling cards. It was ornate, and beautiful.

When you slip on a costume, do you feel transformed into the woman you’re portraying?

Absolutely. Physically, I wear all of the appropriate foundation undergarments, so I stand taller, straighter, and feel automatically more lady-like. I also find myself behaving with more grace and refinement.

Did Victorian belles really have 15 inch waists?

If you were 13 years old! We always focus on the exception instead of the norm. 15 years of research has shown me that there are many misconceptions about women’s sizes. Certainly we are much larger in terms of weight and girth, but the median height is almost the same: 5′ 4″ to 5′ 6″. Simply standing up straight changes measurements all over the body. There is a 3″ difference in the measurement across my shoulders when I am standing up straight. Add wearing a corset, as young teenagers did, and you may get a 15″ waist. Extant garments which look like adult fashions, many times are actually teenagers clothing, but the styles were so similar, that when compared to the adult fashion plates, we think they are adult women’s clothing! 100 years ago a 15 year old’s dress was shorter, but almost exactly in the style of an adult.

Were there some tight lacing? Sure, was that everyone? No. 100 years from now people will say of us: “Everyone did what Michael Jackson did to himself”. Generalities and stereotyping do a disservice to everyday women of the past who were as varied in stature, height and size as we are today. They certainly didn’t weigh as much, but they weren’t midgets. Specialty attire like wedding gowns, can appear very small to our eye. They were wearing a corset and may have cinched themselves in tighter for the occasion. I challenge any woman of today to deny that they not only lose weight for their weddings, but often wear a tight wedding dress, then three weeks later they are back to their normal size and wouldn’t be able to get into their wedding dress! That’s not a new thing. Also keep in mind that larger clothes were frequently cut down to be made into children’s clothing or made into quilts, etc. So what survives, of everyday people’s clothing, tends to be special occasion or young ladies clothes. I am not referring to the fashionistas of the day, like the Vanderbilts, I am talking about every day women.

How has the corsetry and undergarments shaped the way you think about the Victorian/Edwardian era woman?

Many women were slaves to fashion then, just as many women are today. Look at the incredible use of plastic surgery and cosmetic treatments to achieve what we think of as ideal beauty today. How many women have/will have bunions and other foot problems because of the incessant attachment we have to high heeled shoes? Vanity knows no age. Corsetry of the Victorian and Edwardian eras was a tool they used to achieve what they thought of as the ideal female form. The hourglass, the S curve, the straight ‘Titanic’ era undergarments, etc. all served the purpose of supporting a specific silhouette. If you are genetically predisposed to have an hourglass shape then you will have no trouble getting into an hourglass shaped corset and being relatively comfortable in it. I can wear my Victorian corsetry for several hours while dancing at vintage balls without discomfort because of two things: I made them to fit me, [and] I don’t cinch them in too tightly. It is all relative, especially when you consider they grew up wearing them. They were used it. We are not, so when we do occasionally wear one they are uncomfortable and restrictive. I am amazed at how much the women of the Victorian and Edwardian eras achieved, given their restrictive clothing and undergarments. My respect for them doubled once I experienced living a day in the clothes. We need to remember, corsetry was common underwear. In 1900 1,200 workers were cranking out corsets at the Royal Corset factory in Worcester MA.

What research have you done to get into the mind of the Victorian/Edwardian lady?

My research is ongoing, and I must say it is a lot of fun for me. I have every kind of book imaginable on the subject of clothing, lifestyle, patents, inventions, literature, trades, slavery, sweatshops, dressmaking, sewing manuals, marriage, motherhood, jobs, travel…and the list goes on. I have the diaries, the letters, the biographies and autobiographies as well as the newspapers, catalogues and ladies magazines of the day. They all show me what everyday people were being enticed to buy and use. Articles on politics and the suffragette movement are integral to my presentations. Knowing what and who was in the news of the day is important.

Describe a typical Victorian/Edwardian lady’s day.

There is no such thing as a typical day for anyone of any time period. It was really dependent on where in the country you lived and where you were in class and station. The typical day for a working class woman is vastly different than the typical day of a middle class woman who was running a household. In turn, the wealthy ladies had a totally different experience of day to day living. In my programs I focus on middle-class women who may have the resources to hire an extra pair of hands to help with the laundry, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. There were educated women in the work force in many types of jobs. Her life was going to be very different from the housewife or factory worker. On the whole we need to keep in mind that communities were smaller, and the workload to keep house was much more time consuming than it is for us today. No microwaves, no electric stoves, no automobiles, no indoor plumbing, no automatic washing machines. Washboards and ringer washers were the staple of an Edwardian household of the middle-class, still very labor intensive. Then there was the ironing, with an iron, made of iron! Social obligations also varied dependent on the position you held in your community.

How do the actual garments feel (weight, fabric sensation, walking/running/riding,etc)?

They are heavier than our contemporary clothes, mostly due to the layers and heft of fiber content in the fabrics. I wear authentic pieces for my presentation when it’s an indoor show, (always with a body stocking between my skin and the textile…I want these things to last another 100 years!) and I never wear the real stuff to dance in. When I wear reproduction garments, they are made as close to the originals as possible, including weight and fiber content. No polyester or nylon to lighten the load! For me the biggest difference is the heat. With very little skin exposed, I get warm very fast. Which was helpful 100 years ago when they didn’t have regulated heat in their homes or workplaces, but not fun when I am doing a presentation in a 75 degree room! When I dance, I try to wear lighter weight clothing as they did, as it is an aerobic activity. The corset requires that I relax into it, not struggle or fight against it. It becomes my exoskeleton and is very supportive, especially on the back. And as gravity is not our friend, I can say that it is much nicer to be supported from the under bust gussets in a corset rather than elastic straps down from my shoulders! No wonder we have hunched backs today!

What is the most rewarding experience of doing what you do?

I have a couple of main goals in doing my programs. First, to debunk some myths and stereotypes that have been passed down the ages, mainly from badly researched romance novels and TV shows and films like Gone With The Wind. No, they didn’t faint all the time. Yes, they did all kinds of sporting activities, many worked outside the home. Yes, many were educated, more women had a higher education than we give them credit for,etc.etc. Second, if I can get just one person in each audience to look at their own family’s history in a different light, with more appreciation and respect, then I feel I have done my job. Everyday women of 100 years ago were the movers and shakers of their families and towns, but seldom get their names in the history books. I hope the women and men who come and see my programs go home and record their family’s history and pass it on to the younger people in their lives. I also want to bring to light the things we take for granted today, like women voting. We didn’t get the vote until 1920, and it was hard fought for. Some women literally gave up their lives and/or were scorned as terrorists. And yet women today, ages 18-35 comprise the smallest voting populace in the US. That makes me very sad. If women today knew 1/4 of what I know of what the women went through 100 years ago during the height of the suffrage movement, they would never pass a polling place again. They’d go in and vote and say thank you to those women, without whom none of us may ever have gotten the voice in the political arena we enjoy today. We even have a woman running for President…for the second time. Yep, another woman in US history ran for president. Here’s a hint…it was in 1872!

If you could go back in time, where would you go, who would you be, and why?

Wow, I have thought of this many times. I know that I would want to be in my 20s living in the 1890s, I would own a book shop or be a librarian, I would want to be married, without children, living in New England somewhere. A mid-sized city with agriculture nearby.

Any funny anecdotes concerning your profession?

Too many to count, as I have been doing my Victorian Lady programs for 11 years now. It is always fun when gentlemen are in attendance, as there is a lot of humor in my programs. A couple of stories stick out amongst many…One organization decided to market my program as a Reverse Strip Tea (as I get dressed from the inside out, not strip from the outside down). They had a fellow call up and ask if he could make reservations for his buddy’s bachelor party! He was advised that it may not be the event they thought it was and the guy went elsewhere. Twice during my shows I have had a corset lace break as my volunteer was lacing me up. That is always interesting, as the clothes don’t fit if the corset isn’t laced properly, so the show comes to a halt until we can rig the corset to close. I now travel with a back up lace, just in case of a ‘wardrobe malfunction’!

“A glass of absinthe is as poetical as anything in the world. What difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset?” –Oscar Wilde

The drinking of absinthe was a ritual, rightly aided by a host of accouterments: the absinthe glass, the absinthe spoon, and the water drip.

The Absinthe glass was generally made deep, for the amount of absinthe poured into the glass, and sturdy, since the brasseries (bars) were rowdy, and cafes could ill afford to have their patrons break their glasses.

The water drip, its use very important to the preparation of the drink, came in the form of a carafe, a fountain, or a brouilleur, with the fountain being the most popular. Made of metal and glass with two to six tiny spigots, the drinker would turn on the tap and out would gush the ice-cold water over the sugar cube sitting on the spoon and into the glass.

How to prepare the absinthe? After gathering the various items, one would take the absinthe bottle and pour one shot into an absinthe glass. The absinthe spoon was balanced atop the glass, and on the spoon, a sugar cube. The water was poured over the sugar cube until the absinthe turned a white, sage or pearly-gray color.  Absinthe was called “the green fairy” not only because of its color (produced by the addition of chlorophyll), but also its intoxicating, whirlwind effect upon its imbibers. It can be assumed that the green color of the drink colored the artists’ view during their intoxication. Built around anise, a sweet, very aromatic plant with the slight taste of “licorice”, absinthe rightly takes on the flavor of its base.But what comes up, must come down, and with the rise of the temperance movement, absinthe was seen as a menace more troublesome than regular alcohol. Leading doctors, already worried about the growing dependency on alcohol and drugs in the Western world (the upper classes freely indulged in “morphine tea parties”, cocaine use, and ether-soaked strawberries, as well as alcohol overindulgence by the 1880s), began to study the effects and dangers of these dependencies, and when two murders in Switzerland were linked to la fee verte, the death knoll began to ring for absinthe. Becoming the first country to ban the green drink in 1910, other countries were eager to follow suit, America banning absinthe in 1912, and France in 1915. Absinthe substitutes appeared on the market soon after the bans, but WWI, and its new generation found the drink unpopular, and for decades, absinthe was virtually eliminated.

Towards the end of the 20th century, absinthe slowly emerged from obscurity, aided by movies such as Moulin Rouge, From Hell and Dracula, the first absinthe bar opened in South America, soon spreading to other countries despite the bans. These days, those interested in this drink of La Belle Epoque can partake of absinthe in select bars across the country.

Sources:
The book of absinthe : a cultural history by Phil Baker
Absinthe : history in a bottle by Barnaby Conrad
Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals by Cornelia Otis Skinner
France, Fin de Siecle by Eugen Weber

I recently flipped through a research book dealing with Edwardian women and was struck by a passage referencing the brief and scandalous craze for nipple piercing which swept the ladies of the aristocracy during the late 1890s. Fortuitously, someone on the Victorian mailing list I am a member of posed a question about the validity of this trend. Research by other members led to an internet article in which two books are cited. Author Stephen Kern, in his book Anatomy and Destiny, writes that “‘bosom ring’ came into fashion briefly and sold in expensive Parisian jewelry shops. These ‘anneaux de sein’ were inserted through the nipple, and some women wore one on either side linked with a delicate chain.” In England, “a single Bond Street jeweler is supposed to have performed the nipple-boring operation on forty English ladies and young girls”, and the lady quoted above also confirmed the spread of this custom among the fashionable women of London. A certain Madame Beaumont performed the procedure in Paris, as a young woman and her sister, visiting the Paris Exhibition of 1889, shared:

Until the emergence of the waltz in the early 19th century, the minuet reigned supreme as the courtliest, most aristocratic of dances. It was stately, it was elegant, it was—most importantly—proper; only the hands of the dance partners touched, their fingers clasped ever so gently. When the Viennese waltz set a dainty foot on English ballrooms, it shock the church and society with the prolonged bodily contact not just of the hands, but of the body! The dance was quickly denounced by the Anglican archbishops as a lust-inducing, decidedly degenerate action to be left to those hot-blooded, silly foreigners. Needless to say, the more forbidden the dance became the more anxious society was to engage in it—while at the same time considering it scandalous. However, by 1816, the dance had finally reached respectability and the waltz firmly fastened itself onto the dance schedules of balls and routs of English society for the majority of the 19th century. Society thought itself safe from unruly and scandalous dances, having only added the polka in the 1840s, the Virginia reel, germans, and other vigorous dances which did no more harm than red faces and shortness of breath.

Then came ragtime.

By the turn of the century, the syncopated rhythms of African-Americans had slowly but surely invaded the sedate ballrooms of American society. Composers like Scott Joplin, whose Maple Leaf Ragtime made him the first mainstream black artist in American history, created a furor for ragtime and the phonograph. By the time Irving Berlin became an overnight sensation with Alexander’s Ragtime Band and Everybody’s Doin’ It Now, ragtime music had inspired dances with amusing names like the Turkey Trot, the Grizzly Bear, and the Bunny-Hug. Moralists, parents, and statesmen from America to Russia decried the corrupting influence of these dances on youths, but they only served to make them even more popular. However, nothing prepared the terrified older generation for the tango.

This slinky, sensual dance emerged from the fusion of Afro-Latin-American rhythms and movements. It was said the dance originated from the brothels of Argentina, where they were danced by the lower classes and prostitutes of both sexes. Upon the migration of Argentinians to Europe, the dance hit mainstream first in Paris, around 1910, making its way to England and the US by 1913. In reaction to the fluid movements of the tango, skirts suddenly slit to the knee, people began to talk of gigolos, “Tango teas” became the craze, and Latin American music began to supersede the graceful Viennese melodies of the nineteenth century.

And history repeated itself once again with the vitriolic protest Pope Pius X launched against the tango. In Milan, priests thundered from the pulpits, warning congregations “not to indulge in the immoral dance; better still not even to watch it for fear of temptation.” But as with the waltz, Society turned a deaf ear to the remonstrations and in fact, took to the tango (and those wild ragtime dances) with even more alacrity than with the waltz.

For many, despite the insistence that in order to be fashionable, one must do the dances, the tangos and Boston two-steps and such were too much for their sensibilities. Into the fray leaped an American couple by the names of Irene and Vernon Castle. After a stint in Paris, the Castles introduced sedate versions of the raucous dances into the parlors of America’s aristocracy. They placed a firm emphasis on the health benefits and gracefulness of dancing, and as a result of their performances on Broadway, garnered the patronage of thankful matrons such as Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish and Mrs. Rhinelander. The highly-successful couple made the first dance instruction video (1909) and wrote a number of popular books on dancing. To date, a number of films have been made about them, most especially a movie featuring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

These days, dances that scandalized our ancestors are consigned as relics of the past, considered “fusty” and “fussy”, only seen in old musicals or costume movies, and sometimes at ballroom dancing competitions. Except the tango. To today, it continues to be seen as a sensual, decidedly un-fusty dance of seduction. For more information on these dances and others, visit Street Swing!

Further Reading:
Vernon and Irene Castle’s Ragtime Revolution by Eve Golden
The Golden Age of Tango: An Illustrated Compendium of Its History by Horacio Ferrer
This Is Ragtime by Terry Waldo
Dance, A Very Social History by Carol McD. Wallace

To the Edwardian man, the mustache was an affectation “the most flattering to the vanity of the young.” With it, “the boy feels himself a man. It helps him to look old and the look of age is useful in business and inspires confidence. The youth of twenty one looks thirty with a mustache and without it he would look sixteen.” However, the mustache was, in this socially-conscious society, the prerogative of the gentleman. Menservants were required to be clean-shaven, and in contrast to the ornate beards and mustaches worn by the officers of the day, which complemented their rank and age, subalterns and lesser ranks made do with much simpler styles.

For an officer to shave his mustache would be treated like a breach of discipline and in the gentlemen’s clubs of St James’s, to appear with a naked upper lip was as unacceptable as forgetting to put on your trousers! The mustache also had its attractions for ladies. In the 1880s, Rudyard Kipling wrote of a woman who complained that being kissed by a man who did not wax his mustache was like eating an egg without salt. But a few men skirted this unspoken social edict, whether out of a preference for a clean-shaven face or an inability to grow the coveted thick, luxurious whiskers–as was the case of Winston Churchill, who gave up his struggle to grow one while Second Lieutenant in the Queen’s Own Hussars.

These mustaches were pampered: they were trimmed, brushed, combed, dyed, and even curled up at the ends. Great gobs of wax were melted and then applied to the mustache to keep the curls intact. Everything from mustache curlers (left) to wax to snoods (that kept your mustache safe during the night) to modified mugs with a special pierced rim or little bars across known as “mustache lifters” were invented over the course of the nineteenth century to cultivate the requisite sartorial distinction associated with it.

As with all modes and manners of fashion, a few difficulties attached itself to the otherwise elegant foible. For one thing, when steaming hot cups of coffee or tea were carried up to the mouth for sipping, the steam melted the wax and sent it drizzling down the chin, often streaked with dye, right into the cup along with the by then drooping mustache. Mustaches often became stained; a blond mustache soon became a dirty brown wherever the beverage was in frequent contact with the appendage. In 1830 there came a solution: the mustache cup.

Invented by an innovative Englishman, Harvey Adams, the mustache cup had a ledge, called a mustache guard, across the cup. The guard had one semicircular opening against the side of the cup. The pampered mustache rested safe and dry on the mustache guard sipping hot beverage through the opening. Early known as “Napoleons and saucers,” due to the nickname used for mustaches and beards worn by many Englishmen at that time, the invention spread quickly across the Continent and onto America ,and soon every famous potter created his own version of this masculine tableware. A multiplicity of mustache cups were made by famous manufacturers as Meissen, Royal Crown Derby, Imari, Royal Bayreuth, Limoges and others. Cups were made for left-handed gentlemen but, left-handedness still commonly associated with evil or unluckiness, these cups were rarely manufactured.

Many of these were personalized with messages such as, “Forget Me Not,” “A Present,” and “Love the Giver.” Sets of “His and Hers” cups soon followed, with His having the mustache guard. Wedding Sets became popular and some were engraved “Husband” and “Wife.” Other designs included hand-painted portraits and figural decals; seasonal scenes featuring flora and fauna; dogs, horses, and deer; butterflies and exotic birds; strikingly beautiful geometric designs in bold colors; and roses, a Victorian favorite, appeared on many cups. Many mustache cups had lavish gold applied designs. Gilding was widely used, and the interiors of many cups gleam with gold.

Found in a variety of sizes, the largest holding almost a pint of beverage, and shapes, such as seashell, kettle, square, octagonal, hexagonal, some cups were footed and pedestaled, and had unusual handles-butterfly, open or closed fan, insect, rope, cherub, half-scissors and so on. They also came with a variety of accessories. With the exception of large mugs, steins, and possibly a few large kettle-shape cups, all mustache cups originally came with matching saucers. The earliest cups had deep saucers for sipping hot beverages. Later, saucers became more compatible with those currently in use. Mustache spoons (left), also known as etiquette spoons, first graced the tables of American homes. The earliest known mustache spoon was patented March 6, 1868 by Solon Ferrer of New York. These soup spoons, designed with a mustache guard, were helpful in keeping pieces of food from soiling the mustaches of many Victorian men.

This distinctly Victorian idiosyncrasy–the mustache and the mustache cup–died a slow death when, during the Great War, the English military relieved its officers and men of the required mustache. The 1920s and ’30s saw the mustache’s further decline and with it, the mustache cup fell into relative obscurity, to be unearthed only by collectors of Victoriana. But oh what a time it was when the mustache was the height of masculinity, elegance and social station!

Further Reading:
Mustache Cups: Timeless Victorian Treasures by Pauline C. Peck and Glenn Erardi
Moustache by Roger Lax