Future Fashion Trends in the Late Victorian Era (1893)

During the late Victorian era, society was confronted by growing change brought about by the Industrial Revolution, colonialism and pol...

During the late Victorian era, society was confronted by growing change brought about by the Industrial Revolution, colonialism and political upheavals. Despite the clash of ideals of modernity and old values, people have remained optimistic about the future and it reflects on how they see fashion of tomorrow.

An illustrated book "The Future Dictates of Fashion," by W. Cade Gall in the January 1893 edition of "The Strand" magazine has envisioned the future of fashion for the next 100 years! It's quite amazing that these hilarious illustrations look a lot like costumes worn by today's cosplayers.

Here are future fashion predictions by decades:

The Public Domain Review, which published the illustrations, says: "If indeed this was a genuine attempt by the author Gall to imagine what the future of fashion might look like, it’s fascinating to see how far off the mark he was, proving yet again how difficult it is to predict future aesthetics."

"It is also fascinating to see how Gall envisaged the progression of fashions across the decades - considering that, from our perspective now, his vision of 1970 doesn’t much look much different to 1920 - and to see which aspects of his present he wasn’t even able to consider losing to the march of time (e.g. the long length of women’s skirts and the seemingly ubiquitous frill)."

"As is often the case when we come into contact with historic attempts to predict a future which for us is now past, it is like glimpsing into another possible world, a parallel universe that could have been."

Read the full article here.