Victoria, trend setter
- Thread starter Dure
- Start date
maybe if folks took their neoclassicism more to heart? and looking at the pictures on wiki, she wasnt so harsh on the eyes, at least in her youth...
She might have decided that something like the 'tankini' was just what was needed to show off her dear Albert's ... attributes.
Hey, it didn't say SHE had to wear it.
(NB: My dad was nearly arrested for going topless on a beach. Yup. Dad. In the United States (Boston?). OK, so it was the '30s or '40s)
Hey, it didn't say SHE had to wear it.
(NB: My dad was nearly arrested for going topless on a beach. Yup. Dad. In the United States (Boston?). OK, so it was the '30s or '40s)
Problems
Hmm... well for a start, it wouldn't be called the bikini (that was a name given after the H-bomb tests at Bikinin Atoll)
There's also a problem with climate: it was colder in the 19th Century (the Thames froze over in 1814, for instance). Where would she wear a bikini?
I suppose Victoria MIGHT have been able to carry off a bikini in her late 'teens' but that only gives you a window of something like 1835 to 1839. After that date (at the risk of seeming ungallant) I think it's unlikely that she would be starting new fashions in swimwear - because she married and started having children every other year.
Now.. her daughter Princess Louise. SHE might be a candidate for new types of swimwear.
Hmm... well for a start, it wouldn't be called the bikini (that was a name given after the H-bomb tests at Bikinin Atoll)
There's also a problem with climate: it was colder in the 19th Century (the Thames froze over in 1814, for instance). Where would she wear a bikini?
I suppose Victoria MIGHT have been able to carry off a bikini in her late 'teens' but that only gives you a window of something like 1835 to 1839. After that date (at the risk of seeming ungallant) I think it's unlikely that she would be starting new fashions in swimwear - because she married and started having children every other year.
Now.. her daughter Princess Louise. SHE might be a candidate for new types of swimwear.
What if she visited India? It's pretty steamy there... Maybe Louise visits right after the Raj and takes something hmm, interesting and...?
You'd need a continuation of the more decadent Georgian period, displacing the much more staid, morally upright Victorian attitudes which arrived with Vicky's reign. Perhaps have George IV live longer and be a more popular king, legitimising the almost-anything-goes attitudes of his time. The crusade to abolish slavery might have to fail, as those who aggitated against it were often those of the most morally righteous disposition. Knock them back, and Britain becomes a much less moral society where the pursuit of profit remains more important than the suffering of fellow men. Perhaps with less emphasis on moral rectitude amongst the upper and middle classes, there would be more acceptance of a lady dressing in such a manner.
I do think that whatever happens, however, the heir to the throne wearing a bikini in the early 19th century is going to cause a LOT of raised eyebrows. I can guarantee, however, that once Princess Victoria is seen in a bikini, every lady of wealth will want one, whatever the scandal mongers may say.
I do think that whatever happens, however, the heir to the throne wearing a bikini in the early 19th century is going to cause a LOT of raised eyebrows. I can guarantee, however, that once Princess Victoria is seen in a bikini, every lady of wealth will want one, whatever the scandal mongers may say.
David S Poepoe
Banned
If she ever dressed in a sari that would be shocking also, but still acceptable. It might be a little more realistic also.