Lovely Victoriana�s Wardrobe Ladies of the Victorian era could never have enough hats and would collect as many as they could. Inside the wardrobe, you would see hat boxes of every shape and size! Here are a few examples of the hats which ladies would have admired from the pages of "Harper's Bazaar", a major American fashion magazine. A hat was like a garden to a ladies face, with colors that seemed borrowed from nature's finest flowers. A very elegant and essential additon to any ladies wardrobe. Ladies were very "prim and proper", wearing dresses that usually covered their arms, neck and ankles, leaving as little skin as possible showing. Here is an example of a dress which would have been found on the pages of a Victorian era catalog. Another item of clothing which you would find, is a corset. One of the most important articles of dress worn to support a ladies figure. Hooped Petitcoats blossomed out from tiny waists, made even smaller by tightly laced corsets. Fashion-conscious women literally could not draw a deep breath; thus fainting spells- especially on warm summer afternoons- were not uncommon. The Hoop Petitcoat was certainly a nuisance for ladies, as were bustles and corsets, but beauty always did come before comfort. A parasol was an important item, considered an essential addition to any ladies wardrobe. Ladies would carry fans with them, not only to look fancy, but to keep cool from all of the different layers of petiticoats that they were wearing and also in case they felt faint from the tight corsets that they wore. The ladies would also use the fan for hiding behind, as they would peek over and flutter their eyelashes at the handsome bachelors at parties, which was their way of flirting. HOME