Victoria on PBS

Have you been watching the series 'Victoria' on your local PBS station? I certainly have. Beside the historical drama being very interesting, the costumes are also wonderful. The lace collars shown are particularly lovely.

Queen Victoria was a great patron of British lace making and her wedding dress was made of Honiton lace that was applied to a net background. In  fact, all the materials used in her gown were British made. The dress was also trimmed with orange blossoms. Victoria was instrumental in making the white wedding dress popular as up until her wedding most brides wore coloured gown. For most brides of the era, wearing white was not an option as the wedding dress would usually be put into service as part of the everyday wardrobe and white was too impractical.  Victoria reused much of the lace from her gown time and again and a some was even used for her Diamond Jubilee outfit.

Lace collars were a way of dressing up an otherwise plain dress and allowing for the area around the face to be prettily framed as well as the practical fact the collar could be removed and washed more easily than the rest of the garment.

Honiton lace has been made since the 1700's and was a cottage industry, with most lace pieces being made in the homes  of the workers who were for the most part the wives of the poorly paid labourers and fisherman. These workers were often under the control of the shop owners who would in turn sell the finished product in London. It can take up to 5 hours to produce one square centimetre of lace. Large pieces such as collars and hankies could take up to 1,000 hours to make!