Girls’ and Boy’s Fancy Costumes
Posted on July 21, 2007 - Filed Under Fancy Dresses Described
Girl’s and Boy’s Fancy Costumes is a section from Fancy Dresses Described, or, What to Wear at Fancy Balls by Arden Holt. Fifth Edition, London; 1887.
I’ve broken down the costume ideas into alphabetized groups for easier browsing. Find inspiration for an authentic Victorian style Halloween party with the following:
Juvenile Fancy Balls are much the fashion, and the current is setting towards all that is quaint and picturesque. Some of the best dresses worn by young people are suggested by the illustrated books, fairy tales, and other works of fiction, specially written for them.
Among suitable costumes for little girls are Rainbow, Air, Puritan, Fille de Madame Angot, Portia, Alphabet, Babes in the Wood, Little Bayadere, Beauty, Bertrade, Bee, Wasp, Bo-peep, Gipsy, Buy-a-broom, Charity Girl, Charlotte Corday, Children of Charles I. (see CHARLES), Cinderella, College Girl, Columbine, Daffy-down-Dilly, Diablotin, Dolly Varden, Dresden China, Evangeline, Fairy, Fatima, Fish-girls, Flower-girls, Folly, Germaine, Serpolette, Grace Darling, Mother Hubbard, Harvest, Harlequinette, Jill, Ladybird, Magpie, Maid Marian, Maiden-all-Forlorn, Mary-Mary-Quite-Contrary, May Queen, Milkmaid, My-pretty-Maid, Naiad, Undine, Nancy Lee, Lady-of-Olden-Time, Preciosa, Quakeress, Rat-catcher, Reading, Reaper, Red Riding-Hood, One-of-the-Rising-Generation, Characters after Sir Joshua Reynolds, The Seasons, Shepherdess, Witch, Spinning-girl, Tambourine-girl, Lady Teazle, Titania, Olivia and Sophia Primrose, Vivandières, Watteau dresses, Welsh, and White Cat; particulars of which will be found under the several letters in the body of the book.
The costumes we have described in the Introduction as capable of being made at home for gentlemen will apply equally well for boys. Some of the most effective dresses worn by boys, especially those of tender years, have been exact copies of Napoleon, the Lord Mayor, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice of England, &c.
