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Discover thousands of Victorian images in our 
In many ways, the appeal of Victorian fashion never, er, goes out of style. Most of us today wouldn't really care to have to wear Victorian fashions - especially corsets - but we never cease to admire them. Victorian styles seem to embody an elegance that has passed away. Hoops and crinolines still evoke a sigh of nostalgia. In reality, one can't really refer to "Victorian fashion" as if it were a uniform style that applied to the entire Victorian period. The Victorian era extended over decades, and fashions changed then just as they do now. Writers in the late Victorian period looked back with a bit of amusement on the fashions of their mothers and grandmothers (who were also Victorians). A Victorian lady in the 1850's wouldn't know what to make of the wasp-waisted, mutton-sleeved styles of the 1890's (when "Victorian" fashion really becomes "Edwardian" fashion). Victorian women in England also had to deal with a long period of time when it was "fashionable" to share the Queen's mourning by wearing black gowns and jet jewelry. Nevertheless, to most of us, nothing says "Victoriana" like a Victorian fashion plate!