But just as
fashion-conscious
people in the 1960s and 70s adopted tie-dye and
denims from the hippies,
mainstream 19th century designers adopted a version
of the Aesthetic look
and tidied it up for fashionable wear.
The less extreme Aesthetic look appealed to middle-class women on a
budget, because it had a number of solid advantages. Less expensive
materials could be used, jewelry tended to be things like amber instead
of diamonds, you could have a skimpier style that used less material,
and you could have a quasi-historic style that didn't have to be updated
every few months to keep up with fashion.
Also, the Aesthetic look celebrated some physical characteristics, such
as red hair, and a square jaw on a woman, that were commonly considered
downright ugly in mainstream fashion. Also, the "muddy" and
"greenery-yallery" Aesthetic colors looked better on some people than
fashionable bright colors.
There was also an intellectual, "arty" aspect to the look that appealed
to people who liked to be thought artistic, even though they had no
intention of becoming professional artists. And there was some
crossover with the dress reform movement, which also had moderate as
well as extremist adherents. For example, the Aesthetic look often
either omitted the corset or used a modified light corset. (I put a
pattern for one, from a how-to guide to "moderate" Aesthetic dress, in
the first volume of _Fashions of the Gilded Age_.)
The Aesthetic look lent elements to mainstream fashion--over time it
influenced colors, for one thing--but the extreme Aesthetic look seldom
appeared in fashionable magazines. I do have some original how-to
directions (not a pattern) for reproducing a dress from a production
(one of many) of _Patience_, from a mainstream fashionable magazine.
Fran
Lavolta Press
http://www.lavoltapress.com
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