The Form of Mourning Throughout the Rule of Queen Victoria
The moment Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert died in 1861, she set a new trend. Her deep mourning paved the way for oppressive rituals that funeral directors were to carry on until she died forty years later. The whole court was required to dress in mourning clothes and Victoria herself remained in full mourning attire consistently until three years later. Grieving on its own wasn't enough. Inner emotions were to be on full display through the full-on grieving that suddenly became fashionable.
Seeing their Queen's lead, those who could afford to do so indulged in expensive funerals, erected ornate monuments at the grave and adhered to the new style of mourning. To go with specific dress came an entire set of laws restricting the way people could act. Popular household manuals gave comprehensive instructions about the correct etiquette to adopt for each period of mourning. Queen Victoria's less wealthy subjects had to get along with mixing all their clothes in a deep vat of black dye.
Compared to the adults, children were exempt from the rituals and were not generally expected to wear mourning clothes, although sometimes girls wore white dresses. A lot of their mothers, on the other hand, were almost constantly in black, because of the many deaths that Victorian families suffered. The mourning time for men was shorter. Unrestricted by the curtailed social activities, it was acceptable for them to go back to work and continue their daily lives. They just wore black attire, or even just dark suits along with black gloves, cravats and hatbands.
For the women, however, mourning was indeed a grave matter. Although they could still attend church services, throughout full mourning they were never to be viewed in places linked with fun or enjoyment. The lengthiest period of grieving, which usually lasted many years, was after a spouse had died. The expected periods then went down a level, considering what the relationship with the deceased was. In the case of first cousins, for example, the period of grieving was only for a month.
Full mourning lasted for at least one year and a day. During this time females were expected to dress in all black or in dull dresses with no flash, trimmed with crepe. Bombazine was an often used material, being cheaper than non-reflective silk. Petticoats were made with black ribbon attached to their hems, in case they were glimpsed. Then there were lace handkerchiefs with black borders, specially designed caps, bonnets with veils, even large "weeper" cuffs on dresses designed for mourners to wipe their nose during times of particular grief.
Second mourning lasted nine months. While woman's clothes would still need to be drab ? generally gray ? the crepe was allowed to be removed and the mourning veil was allowed to be lifted. A small amount of jewelery was allowed, but the limit of this was hard black jet. It was a custom for locks of the departed's hair to be incorporated into brooches, lockets or watch fobs.
At the time of the half mourning phase, which lasted from three up to six months, there was a gradual introduction of color, with clothes going on to lighter grays, mauve and some white. Jewelery wasn't any longer restricted to jet and any kind was allowed to be worn.
Whatever level of grieving they were in, individuals had to purchase the required dress, or the raw materials to create them with, along with all the trimmings, the jewelery and bonnets etc. It should come as no surprise that a whole industry was created to cater for this fashionable new trend. Jay's of Regent Street started up in 1841 as a kind of one-stop shop, providing everything the grieving widows could possibly need. Death was a big seller, as holding mourning attire and crepe in the house after the mourning had stopped was thought of as bad luck.
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, the grieving fashion she had introduced began to disappear and the funeral director's rituals around grief changed drastically once more.
Seeing their Queen's lead, those who could afford to do so indulged in expensive funerals, erected ornate monuments at the grave and adhered to the new style of mourning. To go with specific dress came an entire set of laws restricting the way people could act. Popular household manuals gave comprehensive instructions about the correct etiquette to adopt for each period of mourning. Queen Victoria's less wealthy subjects had to get along with mixing all their clothes in a deep vat of black dye.
Compared to the adults, children were exempt from the rituals and were not generally expected to wear mourning clothes, although sometimes girls wore white dresses. A lot of their mothers, on the other hand, were almost constantly in black, because of the many deaths that Victorian families suffered. The mourning time for men was shorter. Unrestricted by the curtailed social activities, it was acceptable for them to go back to work and continue their daily lives. They just wore black attire, or even just dark suits along with black gloves, cravats and hatbands.
For the women, however, mourning was indeed a grave matter. Although they could still attend church services, throughout full mourning they were never to be viewed in places linked with fun or enjoyment. The lengthiest period of grieving, which usually lasted many years, was after a spouse had died. The expected periods then went down a level, considering what the relationship with the deceased was. In the case of first cousins, for example, the period of grieving was only for a month.
Full mourning lasted for at least one year and a day. During this time females were expected to dress in all black or in dull dresses with no flash, trimmed with crepe. Bombazine was an often used material, being cheaper than non-reflective silk. Petticoats were made with black ribbon attached to their hems, in case they were glimpsed. Then there were lace handkerchiefs with black borders, specially designed caps, bonnets with veils, even large "weeper" cuffs on dresses designed for mourners to wipe their nose during times of particular grief.
Second mourning lasted nine months. While woman's clothes would still need to be drab ? generally gray ? the crepe was allowed to be removed and the mourning veil was allowed to be lifted. A small amount of jewelery was allowed, but the limit of this was hard black jet. It was a custom for locks of the departed's hair to be incorporated into brooches, lockets or watch fobs.
At the time of the half mourning phase, which lasted from three up to six months, there was a gradual introduction of color, with clothes going on to lighter grays, mauve and some white. Jewelery wasn't any longer restricted to jet and any kind was allowed to be worn.
Whatever level of grieving they were in, individuals had to purchase the required dress, or the raw materials to create them with, along with all the trimmings, the jewelery and bonnets etc. It should come as no surprise that a whole industry was created to cater for this fashionable new trend. Jay's of Regent Street started up in 1841 as a kind of one-stop shop, providing everything the grieving widows could possibly need. Death was a big seller, as holding mourning attire and crepe in the house after the mourning had stopped was thought of as bad luck.
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, the grieving fashion she had introduced began to disappear and the funeral director's rituals around grief changed drastically once more.
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