Book Review: How to be a Victorian

 How to be a Victorian is an excellent piece of cultural history by Ruth Goodman. If you’re a fan of the British series Victorian Farm, you may recognize her name. Ruth, along with two other historians, lived and worked on a farm using only the tools and practices available in the mid-1800s. Her love of the era is infectious! She’s able to illuminate the smallest details of how the Victorians lived.

The subtitle for How to be a Victorian is A Dawn to Dusk Guide. And it is indeed dawn to dusk! Ruth takes us through a typical day of a Victorian man or woman from the moment they woke up to the time they went to bed. It’s fascinating to see how the quality of life improved from the 1830s to the 1880s (unfortunately for the poorest in Victorian society, it didn’t improve by much).

One theme throughout the book is this: most of your day would have been spent cold and hungry. The average Victorian home and workplace was only around 55 degrees F. The average woman wore about 5 layers of clothing almost all year round. The mornings were the most brutal! Most homes did not have a bedside rug nor slippers, and so getting out of bed in the morning was a jolt to the system. In the winter, the jug of water you’d use to wash your face in the morning may have had a layer of ice on it. Windows were also opened year round to keep out “bad air.”

The working class Victorian diet was mostly bread and potatoes, with maybe an occasional meat dinner if times were good. The working poor had almost no access to fresh fruit and vegetables. The precariousness of Victorian life is evident throughout. A job loss or new baby could decimate a family’s already tight budget. But there were joys in life too. The second half of the Victorian era saw the rise of consumer culture in the form of The Great Exhibition and department stores.

One of my favorite chapters in this book details how Victorian women tended to their appearance. Using a piece of leather is apparently a great way to buff the nails! Makeup was generally frowned upon, so fashionable ladies opted for natural looking cosmetics. Similarly to today, many Victorians thought good skin was the base of an attractive appearance. 

If you’d like a similar dawn to dusk guide about Tudor England, I also recommend Ruth’s How to be a Tudor!

French New Wave Beauty

 When I was in high school, I wanted nothing more than to be French. Specifically, I wanted to be like the effortlessly chic women I saw in La Nouvelle Vague, or French New Wave cinema. A NewWave film has the following elements: the anxiety and hope of postwar France, a youthful spirit (as seen in the 1968 student protests), some existentialism, and a touch of gangster film. Throw in some classic cars and a cool hero and you got yourself a show! To this day I still wear a beret occasionally while leafing through a copy of Sartre (no cigarette though, bad for the skin). 

My style icon from this era is Anna Karina, a brilliant actress and Jean Luc Godard’s muse. She brings a vulnerability and beauty to every one of her roles, whether in the heartrending drama Vivre Sa Vie or the thrilling and vivacious Bande a part. To incorporate Anna’s signature style into my own look, I focus on the following:

Hair: No matter what role she played, Anna usually sported a thick fringe or bangs. Pair this with either a chin length bob or shoulder length waves for a more ethereal look.

Lipstick: You can’t go wrong with red lipstick, the bolder the better!

Eyes: The 60’s is known for thick cat eyeliner painted with a thick line and flick at the ends. You can skip eyeshadow or stick to a natural looking champagne shade. For a really bold look, add false eyelashes or dramatic mascara! 

Fashion: Wear the black that captures the ennui of your soul the best. You can incorporate patterns too, such as the plaid skirt worn by Anna in Bande a part. Or you can opt for stripes for a Jean Seberg in a Breathless inspired outfit.