Victorian Widows in Mourning: Eerie Portraits of Grief and Elegance from the 1870s to 1900s

Mourning dress is most commonly associated with the Victorian era, despite being a part of wardrobes for centuries prior.

This period’s prominence in the history of mourning attire is largely due to Queen Victoria, who famously wore mourning dress for forty years following the death of her husband, Prince Albert.

In Victorian society, black clothing was a recognized symbol of mourning, but the customs surrounding it were far more intricate.

Different stages of mourning required specific fabrics and styles, with each carefully selected to reflect the depth and progression of the mourner’s grief.

These elaborate dress codes allowed individuals to communicate their mourning status without speaking.

However, the Victorian approach to mourning was a complex mix of rigid rules and personal interpretation, leading to a wide range of opinions on how grief should be expressed through attire.

The duration and stages of mourning were not universally fixed and often differed depending on the community and family customs. However, there were generally accepted mourning periods for different relationships.

Typically, a widow might mourn her husband for a year and a day, or even for the rest of her life. In contrast, a widower would usually observe a mourning period of three to six months for his wife.

Parents mourning a child and children mourning a parent were often expected to mourn for six to twelve months.

Mourning for a grandparent typically lasted six months, while the period for an aunt or uncle was commonly around three months.

Women progressed through stages of mourning, transitioning from “deep” to “ordinary” and finally to “light” mourning, with each phase having its own distinct fashion guidelines.

Deep mourning commenced immediately after a death, characterized by black attire. Women wore plain black dresses and bonnets, eschewing any decorative trims.

Accessories, including veils, gloves, shoes, and even crepe fabric on their dresses, were also strictly black.

As they entered ordinary mourning, the dress code relaxed slightly. Women could forgo the veil and crepe, add ornate jewelry, and incorporate white trim into their dresses.

In the final stage, known as light mourning, softer colors like lilac, purple, and gray became acceptable.

Men, on the other hand, were not expected to follow such stringent mourning customs. After the burial, they typically returned to work to support their families.

However, they could express their grief with more subtle gestures, such as wearing a long crepe band called a “weeper” on their hats.

The width of this band indicated the closeness of their relationship to the deceased. Other mourning symbols for men, such as black armbands or a black ribbon on the lapel, were optional.

Why is Black the Color of Mourning?

Black has not always been the color of mourning in Western cultures. For centuries, white was the customary color for mourning attire, largely because it was the most affordable and widely available fabric color.

White garments, already common in most households, were traditionally worn during times of grief.

Even after black became the dominant color for mourning in the West, children continued to wear white to funerals, symbolizing innocence and purity.

The association of black with mourning, however, dates back much further to the Roman Empire, where the toga pulla, a garment made of dark-colored wool, was worn during periods of mourning.

It was not until the Georgian era that black began to be widely recognized as the color of mourning beyond the royal family.

As wealthy commoners sought to emulate royal customs, they adopted black mourning attire, paying sumptuary fees to do so.

Eventually, the sumptuary laws governing funeral and bereavement dress were abolished as these customs became more widespread.

Black truly became entrenched as the standard mourning color across all social classes during the Victorian era.

This shift was largely due to Queen Victoria, who, after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861, wore black mourning clothes for the remaining 40 years of her life.

Her prolonged mourning set a powerful example, influencing society at large.