In the 19th century, apart from cotton shirts, men’s clothes consisted of three parts. In the 18th century they wore knee length breeches but in the 19th century men wore trousers. They also wore waistcoats and coats.

In the early 19th century women wore light dresses. In the 1830s they had puffed sleeves. In the 1850s they wore frames of whalebone or steel wire called crinolines under their skirts. In the late 1860s Victorian women began to wear a kind of half crinoline. The front of the skirt was flat but the it bulged outwards at the back. This was called a bustle and it disappeared in the 1890s.

From the 1840s onwards it was fashionable for women to have very small waists so they wore corsets.

About 1800 women started wearing underwear for the first time. They were called drawers. Originally women wore a pair of drawers i.e. they were actually two garments, one for each leg, tied together at the top. In the late 19th century women's drawers were called knickerbockers then just knickers.

The Victorians usually wore hats. Wealthy men wore top hats. Middle class men wore bowler hats and working men wore cloth caps.

Before the 19th century children were always dressed like little adults. In Victorian times the first clothes made especially for children appeared such as sailor suits.

A number of inventions to do with clothing were made in the 19th century. The safety pin was invented in 1849. The electric iron was invented by Henry Seely in 1882 but it did not become common until the 1930s. Dry cleaning was invented in 1855. The zip fastener was invented in 1893.

From : www.localhistories.org/