Visit to Platt Hall costume gallery - Thursday 4th January 2013

Victorian Fashion Era 1850

The curators at the gallery selected contrasting costumes more or less relating to an upstairs and downstairs reflection of the people who would wear them. One of the displays was that of a lady's riding habit; the jacket was beautifully tailored with bones in the jacket to make the lady sit upright and the skirt was voluminous containing a great deal of material and was tailored to fashion the skirt to fit over the lady's knees as she sat side saddle and to keep it in place. The beautiful pork pie hat finished off the ensemble and was of the very highest quality material and construction. The other item was the uniform of a gamekeeper. We saw the gamekeepers waistcoat which was bright red and of a very heavy woolen velour material. His jacket was quite generously made with huge pockets both back and inside which would fit small items of game and possibly the paraphernalia he used on his game-keeping rounds. The hat was a beautiful bowler hat, quite heavy, and again very well made. The buttons on the waistcoat and coat contained impressions of animals such as a fox, a deer, a hound and various other animals related to game keeping. Very high quality materials and indicative of the way society confirmed their wealth by their ostentation display of their material goods.
One of the other displays was that showing a high class lady's evening gown; again beautifully made in very heavy satin material, red and black, and trimmed at the neck and sleeves in a beautiful lace. Her evening coat  was trimmed with a white downy fur and was obviously made to keep the lady warm. The contrasting costume was that of her coachman. His breeches were a heavy woolen material with buttons at the ankle which enabled him to keep his trousers securely in place inside his boots. The boots were very heavy leather and would have come to mid calf. His jacket was of a fine woolen material to the front but a coarser material at the back of the waistcoat which was not on display when worn. Very distinctive qualities in the contrasting upstairs/downstairs separation. The lady's boots were tiny and would have fitted possible a size three foot today with many tiny buttons fastening them down each side.
By contrast, the next display we looked at and handled was the uniform of a left tenant in the Lancashire rifles. His topcoat was bright red with tails, double-breasted, with highly decorated guilt buttons and surprisingly fastened by concealed hook and eye rather than functioning buttons and button holes. His appalettes were very heavy, completely covered in fine gold wire embroidery with large rigid tassels covering the soldier.
We handled three different hats, each possibly used on different ceremonial occasions. The first was quite large, almost completely covered in heavy gold embroidery, and the other two a little smaller with just a 2-3 inch wide band of gold embroidery to one side. The larger buttons on the dress coat resembled what I thought was the Lancashire Rose and was a theme throughout the decorations of this uniform. It was obviously very costly and would indicate that only the wealthiest of young men could afford to join one of the Queen's battalions.

Our thanks to the curators for the obvious time and care they took in selecting these very diverse costumes from this era. They are possibly an indication of the beginning of the wealth produced at the beginning of the industrial revolution and the desire of the new rich to show society their wealth, hence the building of magnificent mansions like Platt Hall, and the dramatic changes brought about in society during and after the 1950s. It was most rewarding to be able to handle all of these items and discuss with the lovely curators their place in our history.
Our thanks to Mary for organising this very nice visit and for our very welcome tea, biscuits and chocolates on a cold morning, and bravo to all of her volunteers for getting us there and safely returning us to our homes.