Exotic fauna and flora: fashion trends in the nineteenth century

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the extreme, unique and unusual fashion trends in the nineteenth century. The natural world in general, flora and fauna in particular, has always been a primary source of inspiration for the clothing and fashion. Victorian obsession for expertly worked curiosities from foreign lands using unusual flora and fauna, such as iridescent feathers, hummingbirds and beetle wings created an extensive European export market. Indian beetle wings created an extensive European export market for India in the nineteenth century as a fashion embellishment. Fashionable Victorian ladies swept through ballrooms with dresses, shawls and fans embellished with glittering touches of beetle wing exotica. In the 1851 Great Exhibition, held in the Crystal Palace in London, the main fur exhibitor, the Hudson's Bay Company, displayed the range of furs such as racoon, beaver, chinchilla, bear, fisher, fox, lynx, martin, mink, musquash, otter, fur seal and wolf.