Aesthetic Dressing - The Anti-Fashion Arts & Crafts Movement

The Arts and Crafts (or Aesthetic) movement was a reaction against the damaging effects of industrialisation and the relatively low status of the decorative arts.  A group of like-minded artists and intellectuals, including William Morris, sought to reform the design and manufacture of everything from buildings to jewellery and to encourage an appreciation of art and an understanding of what was beautiful. They saw the prim and proper Victorian society as rigid and the obsession with a false respectability as foolish. Beauty for the sake of beauty was their motto. 

In Praise of Venus by Sir Edward Burne Jones, circa 1873 - 1875 (SOURCE)

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

John Ruskin, 'The Cestus of Aglaia, the Queen of the Air', 1870

 

Marigolds by Gabriel Dante Rossetti (check out that gorgeous black cat!)

Aesthetic fashion rejected the stiffly tailored garments of the Victorian era & embraced a more fluid, comfortable way of dressing based on the mediaeval costumes popularised by the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites. The Aesthetics viewed corsets and the rigidity of the fashions of the day as unattractive and artificial.This so-called Cult of Beauty, where designers sought more natural styles & objected to mass production led to a fashion revolution and the movement been compared to the hippy counterculture of the late 1960s. 

Initially ridiculed (as this cartoon by George Du Maurier in an 1879 issue of Punch magazine illustrates), many of the decorative features of the Aesthetic movement were, by the 1890s, absorbed into mainstream fashion. 

Mrs Luke Ionides’ by William Blake Richmond, London, 1882 (Source)

Hating how the textile mills of the 19th century had devalued the importance of skilled weavers and relied upon poorly paid unskilled workers toiling in dreadful conditions, William Morris was inspired to co-found the furnishing and decorative arts company, Morris & Co. 

Morris also objected to the use of the new chemical dyes which by the 1850s had replaced the old, organic dyes, considering these new dyes hideous and gaudy. While the older dyes faded to more subtle hues, he wrote that aniline-dyed fabrics changed into "abominable hues" and experimented tirelessly to produce subtle colours for his fabrics, only using natural dyes. The colours worn by the Aesthetics were the subdued tones acheived by using these vegetable dyes, with gentle greens, blue and browns and pale golden yellows being most common. 

Morris & Co. fabric swatches

Specific fabrics were used to make Aesthetic clothes, softer and lighter than the fashionable taffetas and moire silks of the day with unbleached holland (a coarse linen), fine cottons such as cambric, muslin and poplin, velveteens and lightweight silks  being particularly popular. One of the main suppliers was Liberty & Co. some of their fabric, like thetis brocade was especially made in Spitalfields and others, like fine silks, Umritza cashmere and woollens, were imported from Asia. 

Liberty & Co. Dress , 1894 (SOURCE)

Aesthetic dress, from the 1905 Liberty & Co., catalogue

Robe, Liberty & Co. Ltd., circa 1897

Phyllis Barron & Dorothy Larcher were two of the leading block printers of the early 20th Century and produced a range of printed & woven dress fabrics as well as some ready made dresses from their premises in Gloucestershire. 

Barron & Larcher at work SOURCE

From left: Eve Simmonds (the wife of the Arts & Crafts puppet maker, William) in a Barron & Larcher printed skirt; Two dresses c.1935; Barron & Larcher scarf c.1925 

Jewellery designer Georgie Gaskin photographed by William Smedley Aston c. 1903

The traditional crafts of smocking, hand embroidery and applique were revived. As well as being decorative, smocking gave additional movement to the bodice & sleeves. As sewing was an enforced part of a woman's education during the Victorian period, most women who wore aesthetic dress were accomplished seamstresses.  

Lady Tennant Source

Changes in fashion led to new developments in jewellery and the enthusiasm for the aesthetic colours in dress fabrics led to a demand for soft coloured stones such as tourmaline and peridot. Women who wanted their jewellery less conspicuous wore single strands of amber beads or long chains inspired by mediaeval jewellery and brooches and buckles which were functional as well as decorative. Indian jewellery appealed as it was handmade and, in 1894, Indian silver pieces were available for sale in Liberty. Queen magazine, in 1881, published an article on making jewellery from home-dried and dyed marrow fat peas, melon seeds, berries, lacquer & glass beads and shells. Some women became quite skilled and exhibited their work at the Arts & Crafts Society. 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Monna Vanna, 1866 (SOURCE)

Bocca Baciata, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (SOURCE)

The Pre-Raphaelite ideal of feminine beauty differed greatly from previous artistic styles. Whilst early Victorian artists praised rosy cheeks, round cherub-like faces, neatly pinned back blonde hair and maternal curves, the Pre-Raphaelites painted women with slim bodies, sharp faces and long, loose, wavy hair. Many critics were repulsed by this radical appreciation of different body types, expressing disapproval of the resulting artworks' deviation from idealised beauty.

Jane Morris

After serving as the Pre-Raphaelite muse, Jane Morris created a new beauty trend. The long, cascading tresses in these paintings were quite revolutionary for the era as loose hair was rarely on display. A young girl could wear her hair down, but as soon as she became a respectable lady, she would pin it up in stiff and intricate styles. A loose-haired woman had erotic undertones, as a lady’s hair was considered to be her glory, the essence of her passion. In a social atmosphere of prudery and stiffness, Pre-Raphaelite hair conveyed a sexual message. Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Lady Lilith , for example, portrays a legendary femme fatale combing her long hair while she seductively exposes a shoulder to a viewer. Lilith appears self-absorbed and inattentive to the world as she admires her long, red locks in a hand mirror. The painting is a testament to the Pre-Raphaelites’ fascination with feminine allure, as Rossetti attached a quotation from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust to the original frame: “Beware . . . for she excels all women in the magic of her locks, and when she twines them round a young man’s neck, she will not ever set him free again.” (Source)

Lady Lilith - Gabriel Dante Rossetti

Study by Evelyn De Morgan - Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton

William Morris in The Lesser Arts of Life (1882) shared the opinion of how clothes should echo the natural beauty of the human figure and noted that dress was an integral part of people's lives and an avenue for self expression which was not always appreciated, particularly by victims of fashion.  

SOURCE

…when woman’s dress is or may be on the whole graceful and sensible (please note that I say it may be); for the most hopeful sign of the present period is its freedom: in the two previous periods there was no freedom. In that of grim respectability a lady was positively under well-understood penalties not allowed to dress gracefully, she could not do it; under the reign of [the] crinoline, if she had dressed simply and beautifully, like a lady, in short, she would have been hooted in the streets; but nowadays, and for years past, a lady may dress quite simply and beautifully, and yet not be noticed as having anything peculiar or theatrical in her costume. Extravagances of fashion have not been lacking to us, but no one has been compelled to adopt them; every one might dress herself in the way which her own good sense told her suited her best. Now this, ladies, is the first and greatest necessity of rational and beautiful costume, that you should keep your liberty of choice; so I beg you to battle stoutly for it, or we shall all tumble into exploded follies again. 

Because of my masses of hair, I've been (very flatteringly) compared to a Pre-Raphaelite muse since I was a teenager and I've been an artist's model for decades (most frequently sitting for my friend, Liz). If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll know I favour long, flowing dresses & statement sleeves and my wardrobe is stuffed with block printed cotton, fine wool & velvet dresses and voluminous kaftans. I'm very partial to embroidery and shirred bodices worn with a tonne of Indian tribal jewellery. In recent years I've ditched the black hair dye, haven't had my hair cut since April 2022 and plait it before bed to give my annoyingly poker-straight hair an Aesthetic wave.

Here's a few old favourites....an Anokhi block printed dress with a vintage Medieval inspired, velvet jacket with wizard sleeves, my 1960s Indian cotton, hand embroidered dress which has regularly featured on my blog since 2010, a vintage Afghan dress, my moss green velvet maxi from Kharibu (snapped by Nikki in Coventry last year) and an early 1970s Janet Wood for Monsoon Afghan dress worn with a silk kimono from the 1920s. 

You might recognise this 1960s wool maxi dress, a gift from pals G&T many years ago, the groovy Collier Campbell fabric was sold at Liberty & Co. The jacket is printed in William Morris's Chrysanthemum, an upholstery fabric originally produced in 1877 and refashioned into a jacket by Dolly Rockers over a hundred years later.

But you don't need to have hair down to your bum and a wardrobe full of vintage clobber to introduce a bit of Aesthetic style into 21st Century life.

1. Don't slavishly follow fashion, wear the clothes you love and not what current trends dictate.

2. Avoid buying anything made by poorly paid workers in dreadful conditions. Say no to cheap fashion made in Asian sweatshops, buy fair-trade or ethically produced garments if you can afford them and secondhand or homemade if you can't.

3.Forget about the shapewear, anything uncomfortable and skintight. If you can't run for a bus in it, chuck it out.

 4. Embrace natural fabrics and dyes which get better and better with age. 

5. Teach yourself to sew, to mend or to embroider. Enhance, refashion, repair or alter what you already own.

6. William Morris's best known words of wisdom can also apply to your wardrobe. Fill it with beautiful things (but leave a tiny bit of room for the not-so-pretty but useful garments that keep your body warm and dry).

Thanks for reading!