The Style 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. Her entire court was commanded to dress in mourning clothes and Victoria herself remained in full mourning attire for three years. Grieving was no longer enough. Inner emotions were to be on show throughout the full-on grieving that suddenly became fashionable. Seeing their Queen’s example, those who had the money to do so indulged in expensive funerals, erected ornate monuments on the grave and adhered to the new style of grieving. Along with specific dress came an entire set of rules restricting the way people could act. Popular household manuals provided detailed instructions about the correct etiquette to adopt for the different stages of mourning. Queen Victoria’s poorer subjects had to make do with mixing their clothing in a large vat of black dye.
Compared to the adults, children were exempt from the traditions and were not generally expected to wear mourning attire, although sometimes girls wore white dresses. Many of their mothers, however, were nearly always in black, thanks to the many deaths that Victorian families suffered. The mourning period for men was not as long. Unrestricted by the curtailed social activities, it was acceptable for them to go back to work and carry on with their daily lives. They simply wore black attire, or even just dark suits accompanied by black gloves, cravats and hatbands.
For the women, however, grieving was indeed a grave matter. Although they could still attend church services, throughout full mourning they were never to be viewed in places associated with fun or enjoyment. The lengthiest period of grieving, which usually lasted at least two years, was after the death of a spouse. The required periods then went down a level, depending on the relationship with the deceased. In the case of first cousins, for example, the period of mourning was only four weeks.
Full mourning lasted for at the very least one year plus one day. During this time females were expected to dress in black crepe or in dull dresses with no flash, trimmed with crepe. Bombazine was an often used material, being cheaper compared to non-reflective silk. Petticoats had black ribbon attached to their hems, in case they were glimpsed. Then there were lace handkerchiefs with black borders, special caps, bonnets with veils, even big “weeper” cuffs on dresses designed for mourners to wipe their nose during times of intense grief.
Second mourning lasted nine months. While women’s clothes would still need to be dark – generally grey – the crepe was allowed to be removed and the mourning veil was allowed to be lifted. A small amount of jewelery was allowed, but this was limited to hard black jet. It was popular for locks of the departed’s hair to be built into brooches, lockets or watch fobs.
By the half mourning phase, which went from three to six months, there was a gradual introduction of color, with clothes going on to brighter greys, mauve and a small amount of white. Jewelery was no longer restricted to jet and any kind was allowed to be worn.
Whichever phase of grieving they were in, people were required to be able to acquire the particular necessary dress, or the materials to create them with, along with all the trimmings, the jewelery and headwear etc. It should come as no surprise that a whole industry sprang up to cater for this fashionable new trend. Jay’s of Regent Street started up in 1841 as a kind of one-stop shop, selling everything the mourning family could possibly require. Death was a lucrative business, as keeping mourning attire and crepe in the home after the mourning had ceased was thought of as bad luck. When Queen Victoria died in 1901, the mourning etiquette she had introduced began to disappear and the funeral director’s rituals around grief changed dramatically once more.
I work for a UK based Funeral Directors. I enjoy my work, we cater for all cultures and understand and respect the cultural variations with regards to funerals. It’s a nice place to be. I get to spend a lot of time online, checking out places like this!
