Tweed, Bowlers and Capes • Victorian Men's Fashion

There was an interesting article in the New York Times last week about the resurgence of Victorian fashions for men.  Dress Codes author David Coleman writes: "...consider the steady infiltration of 19th-century haberdashery into the 21st-century wardrobe. Garment after garment has arrived on the scene that one might think more Gilbert and Sullivan than Bergdorf and Goodman, only to be taken up by the young beards."  The article online, This Just in From the 1890s, is accompanied by two slide shows.  One offers a pictorial insight into the making of tintypes, that largely American photographic technique that was used extensively in the second half of the 19th century.  The other depicts contemporary Victorian inspired fashion photographed on tintypes by David Sokosh, a modern day tintype pioneer.

Curious as I am, I wanted to compare the images to some that we have in our inventory, from both France and America, of dapper gentlemen of the late 1800s.  There is quite a remarkable similarity between the fashions, even separated by 120+ years.  Take a look.


The top image is one of David Sokosh' modern day tintypes.
The bottom image is an early albumen photograph from the late 1890s.

Here are some of the other images we have.  These are both tintypes and the slightly later cartes de visite (CDV) and cabinet cards.

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