Every year, PriorAttire hosts a Victorian Ball in the historic city of Bath, England. Over a cycle of seven years, all fashion eras of the the Victorian period have a chance to shine. The theme for this year was the crinoline era, which spans the 1850s to late 1860s which is one of my favorite fashions of the 19th century.
Depending on where you live, you might know this historical period by different names, such as Mid-Victorian, Civil War, 3rd Napoleonic Era. It coincided with the reign of naturally Queen Victoria, Empress Eugene and Empress Sisi, each of whom heavily influenced the fashions of her time. After jealously looking at the photos posted each year, this year I finally had a chance to attend myself!
There is a video at the end of this post, in case you would like to see some of the gowns in action!
The annual Victorian Ball hosted by PriorAttire is held in Bath on the first weekend in May, usually coinciding also with the Met Gala – we all know who had the better dresses! I arrived on Friday afternoon, in time to explore a little before getting dressed in 1860s day-wear for a historical evening promenade through the city.
A number of girls stayed in the same hotel as me, so the receptionists soon had to get used to women in hoop skirts coming in and out. The promenade was a great opportunity to meet the people and chat to other dressmakers.
Oddly enough, I felt very myself in my dress, it did not feel like I was playing a part. I guess wearing the (almost) historically correct underpinnings also helped make the dress “real” as opposed to an empty costume worn over of the true you. Many people stopped to talk to us about our costumes, asked for pictures, and – my personal favorite – a skateboarder lifted his baseball cap at us! Funnily enough, others felt “underdressed” when they saw us, instead of us feeling overdressed.
On Saturday afternoon we had a dance workshop, in preparation for that night’s ball. Dances were called, and we learned how to dance polkas, quadrilles and English country dances. Some women wore day dresses, but most of us just showed up in our crinolines with a petticoat. I simply wore crinoline and t-shirt. It was important to get a sense of the space dancing in our big skirts.
Some of us did some last-minute shopping, ribbons, flowers and the like. I miraculously found some affordable vintage evening gloves in an antique store, and also some historically plausible clip-on earrings at a little shop in the Guildhall market.
Then we helped each other dress, and again the atmosphere was amazing. Imagine five exited girls getting into huge dresses in very small rooms, and finally building a chain in the corridor to lace the dresses of fix their hair. We were of course running late, and the fact that a pizza delivery guy had to squeeze past us, didn’t exactly help either. But we made it!
Finally we were all done and ready to hurry to the ball. When we got there, I noticed that I had forgotten my evening gloves. After some hesitation I figured I could run back to the hotel to get them, as every one was still queuing to have their picture taken.
I didn’t want to miss my chance of an official portrait, but there were enough people in front of me to give me 10 minutes to spare. That meant I had a proper “Cinderella running” moment. I also encountered some other latecomers to the ball, the gentleman courteously lifting his hat. In return I gave a hurried bow, and then started running again.
At eight o’clock, the ball started with a procession of all the couples, who walked in, bowed to the hostess/dance instructor, before separating into lines of men and women walking around the perimeter of the ballroom, before rejoining their partner at the doors. and walking around the room again this time as couples. Once we came to the doors again, we joined a second couple, to form a set of four dancers, ready to kick off the night with a Spanish Walz, which smoothly transitioned into a Danish Dance. Polkas and Quadrilles, Reels and Country-dancing followed. We had a short break about mid-evening, before dancing again till almost midnight.
Sunday morning I met with a few ball-goers for brunch at Sally Lunns, a historic little restaurant in town. The bulk of the ball guests brunched at the Pump rooms, but they were already sold out. Then we wandered around town a little more, and I caught the 3:13 train home. The End.
Since this was my first time going to a costume event, I was really exited, but also a little worried about how my dress was going to look next to all of the gowns of more experienced dressmakers. I did look a little simpler than most, but that was only to be expected, and didn’t stop me from enjoying my weekend to the full.
Especially the dancing was amazing – even though due to gentlemen shortage I danced with women most of the night. But since the dances are danced mostly in sets instead of the lead/follow setup, that didn’t really matter. Instead we danced our hearts out underneath the brilliant chandeliers, while about 500 meters of fabric whirled across the old wooden floors.
