The Crinoline Era
Aptly nicknamed the Crinoline Era by costume historians, the period of Victorian fashion encompassing the years 1850 through 1869 marked the widespread adoption of the era's eponymous underskirt, regardless of the wearer's socioeconomic standing. The reign of Queen Victoria, who assumed the throne of England in 1837 at just eighteen years of age, brought about remarkable social and cultural progress. From the first world's fair to the invention of photography and the sewing machine, industrialization led to the growth of the middle class.
Couture rose in popularity as designer Charles Worth created mix-and-matchable bodices, sleeves and skirts. Motherhood and virtue were all but worshipped, mirrored in the extreme modesty of the era's attire. Women wore high-necked, corseted dresses with very full skirts, and dressed their daughters as miniature versions of themselves.
It was not unusual for an English gentleman to fixate on a young girl in an idealistic manner, viewing her as the embodiment of his own lost innocence and youth. The much-discussed relationship between Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell, his inspiration for the heroine in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, flourished during the height of this trend.