Strange Materials in Historical Fashion - Part 2

Strange Materials in Historical Fashion - Part 2

Hi and welcome back to a new blog post about historical fashion!

Do you remember a few weeks ago when we dove into the fascinating world of strange materials in historical fashion? We explored some truly unusual resources like fish scale sequins, beetle wing embellishments, and even buttons made from milk!

Well, I promised you a second part, and here we are! Today we're continuing our journey through the most unexpected materials that shaped historical fashion. From horsehair that gave Victorian gowns their perfect silhouettes to mourning "gems", prepare to be amazed once again by our fashion ancestors.

Ready to discover more surprising materials that made historical garments so extraordinary?   

Let's dive in!


 

Horsehair: The Secret Behind Perfect Victorian Silhouettes

Crin Horsehair Petticoat (American or European) 1840s Metropolitan Museum of New York.

When we think of horsehair in fashion, crinolines immediately come to mind – but this versatile material played a much broader role in creating the structured elegance of Victorian garments.

The term "horsehair" refers both to the actual hair from a horse's mane or tail and to a distinctive fabric woven with linen or cotton warp and horsehair weft, typically produced in black or white before being dyed. This remarkable material found its way into furniture, undergarments, wigs, millinery, and fashion interfacings throughout the 19th century.

Bonnet, American or European (ca. 1838). Met museum of New York.

The French called it "crin," which gave us the word "crinoline." As the Kyoto Costume Museum explains, the original crinoline was "a type of petticoat made of linen and interwoven with horsehair" that evolved dramatically throughout the 1850s and 1860s. What started as a horsehair-stiffened petticoat transformed into the infamous cage crinoline – those steel and whalebone hoops that made Victorian skirts reach extraordinary proportions.

By the mid-1860s, these structures had grown so large that women sometimes may have struggle to walk through doorways, making them a frequent target of satirical magazines!  It's important to note that while the original crinoline contained horsehair, the later cage "crinolines" were made entirely of steel and whalebone – despite keeping the same name.

Beyond crinolines, horsehair fabric served crucial structural purposes as interlining and facing and was widely used for wigs. Its stiffness was quite important to keep shape perfect through long usage. 

Nowadays horsehair weaving has nearly disappeared from the modern world, surviving in only a handful of places.  One fascinating exception is John Boyd Textiles in Castle Cary, where this Victorian craft continues to thrive using the original looms and techniques from over 125 years ago. You may find their website link in the bibliography at the bottom.

 

Human Hair Jewelry: Victorian Sentimentality Made Tangible

If horsehair seems unusual, consider this: Victorians regularly wore jewelry made from human hair! This wasn't just a mourning tradition – it was a widespread practice that predated the Victorian era by centuries.

Human hair jewelry flourished throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, with artisans creating intricate bracelets, brooches, and decorative flowers from carefully preserved tresses. These pieces served multiple purposes: mourning jewelry to remember deceased loved ones, romantic tokens between lovers, and sentimental gifts among family members.

Portrait of Constantine Phipps dated 1770 (brooch) - the human hair bracelet is dated around 1820. Cleveland Museum of Art.

The craft was surprisingly sophisticated and could be used to create loops, bows, flowers with leaves or other specific shapes. Sometimes hair was even ground into pigments for miniature paintings.  Women typically made these pieces at home, following detailed guides like Mark Campbell's 1867 hair art manual (link to his book as pdf on bottom of this page), which provided step-by-step instructions for various weaving techniques.

Design of Victorian hair decorations.
Hair Brooch, provenance unknown.

While we often associate hair jewelry exclusively with Victorian mourning customs – partly due to the era's intense "cult of the dead" – these pieces were equally popular as gifts for the living. A bracelet woven from a beloved's hair or flowers crafted from family members' tresses represented deep emotional connections in an age that valued such tangible expressions of sentiment.

Sometimes, dyed horsehair was even substituted for human hair, showing how these unusual materials intersected in unexpected ways throughout fashion history.

Note: are you curious about how to braid hair in those shapes? I found a video with a tutorial from youtuber  Grandma Money, where she shows how she still makes human hair flowers. Here it is: Click Here!

 

 

Mourning Materials: Jet and Vulcanite

Hair jewelry wasn't the only material Victorians used for mourning. Their elaborate funeral customs created demand for other specialized materials too.

Jet (also called jais in French) became one of the most prized mourning materials, though its history stretched back millennia. This fossilized wood, compressed over millions of years into a deep black stone, had been valued since prehistoric times and appreciated during the Roman Empire.

According to English Heritage: "The belief in the protective and healing qualities of jet had survived where the Roman Empire had not, and throughout the medieval era jet had a number of purposes outside of the decorative. As a powder it was used to clean the teeth, it allegedly eased the pain of gout and it could even serve a purpose during childbirth. Jet also had secular uses at this time, and numerous carved jet gaming pieces and dice have been found."

But it was during the Victorian era that jet reached its peak of fashion, thanks to Queen Victoria, who wore jet jewelry while mourning Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and later her own husband, Prince Albert. Its deep black color and ability to take fine detail made it perfect for intricate mourning jewelry and buttons. During Prince Albert's funeral, it is said that jet was the only jewelry material the queen allowed to be worn.

 

Jet Brooch dated 1880, from an Ebay collector and seller.

 

Ebonite (also called Vulcanite or hard rubber) was made during the victorian era by vulcanizing natural rubber for extended periods of time. It offered a more affordable alternative to jet, easily molded into elaborate mourning jewelry and decorative elements that captured the somber elegance required by Victorian mourning etiquette. Like jet, ebonite was remarkably lightweight due to its rubber composition, making it a popular and practical substitute for the more expensive fossilized wood.

Vulcanite pendant with moulded female head, 1870-1900. Open: Science Museum Group. Artstor, JSTOR.

Conclusion

The next time you see a Victorian gown or Edwardian jacket, remember the incredible variety of materials that went into its creation. Here through those 2 blog post I have only listed a few, but who knows I can talk about more of them in the future!

Follow me on my socials to stay updated on the future blog posts!

 

Bibliography:

 

 

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