ok im gonna do homework and then do a thread on irene adler's costumes in a scandal in bohemia bc I Feel Like It that's why

23 hours later and i have not completed my homework

update: i will be taking a physics exam and THEN doing this thread

alright. the first time we see irene adler, it's the middle of the night, and a pair of ruffians—later revealed to have been hired by the king—have broken into her home.

she's wearing what we would expect a victorian lady to throw on suddenly in the dead of night: a dressing gown.
the victorian dressing gown came about in the 1870s. it was designed to be loose-fitting and comfortable—akin to modern bathrobes or the sweatshirt/yoga pants combo.

this instantly tells us (as if the set, with its paintings and furniture, as well as the appearance of some sort of butler or other male servant, didn't already) that irene adler is well-off. the sheer amount of lace would put this garment out of reach for a working class woman.

her next appearance is in a series of flashbacks, narrated by the king when he visits holmes. the riding habit she wears here is one of my favorite costumes on the show!

starting with the foundation layers—she's wearing a corset!
contrary to popular belief, corsets were to the victorians what bras are to us. likes bras, they were designed to support the bust. but they had the added function of shaping the body. (photos: victoria & albert museum)

to put a very long story short, 19th c. corsets evolved from 17-18th c. stays. stays were fully boned (each diagonal line in the first pic is a strip of baleen!), while corsets originally contained no boning. later, they were boned, but more strategically than stays.

(sidenote: in the later victorian period, it was possible to use steel instead of baleen, which is the stuff that toothless whales use to filter out their food—one of the very few good things the industrial revolution did for the environment! modern corsets use plastic or steel.)

pic 1: baline for corsetry, from https://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-about-corsets-baleen-ho.html?m=1
pics 2 & 3: baline whale and info, https://uk.whales.org/whales-dolphins/what-is-baleen/
pic 4: modern corsetry materials, https://www.corsettraining.net/steel-boned-corsets/

corsets in the victorian era weren't quite as restrictive as they're made out to be. remember, they're like bras: working women wore these all day, every day!
however, they did limit movement. so, there were different styles of corsets for different activities.

in the same way that a modern person would probably wear a sports bra rather than a push-up while exercising, a victorian would wear a riding corset while out...riding. they could be bought this way, or modified from an existing corset, like this one was: https://pin.it/12xVKEn 

riding corsets were shorter than standard corsets. if they came down over the hips at all, they did not include boning at that part. this allowed the wearer more hip flexibility, which is required to ride sidesaddle.

next, the dress itself! this is what threw me for a loop when i rewatched the episode: the dress doesn't have much of a bustle. so what era are we in?

the 1870s and 1880s were a WHIRLWIND when it comes to fashion trends. remember when patterned leggings were suddenly a thing for a few years, and then vanished? or flower crowns? picture that, but three times in a row, and instead of one item, it's the ENTIRE OUTFIT.

giant bustles like the one below were all the rage in the 1870s, until suddenly, they...weren't. the late 70s marked the start of the natural form era: tight-fitting dresses designed to show off the "natural" (but still corseted) figure became the new trend.

from there, skirts began to grow again, but only in the back: thus, the second bustle era was born. and within a few years, the bustle faded away again into smaller and smaller bustle pads in the 1890s.

the train from her hat conceals the skirt, but she clearly doesn't have a bustle in this scene. but in other flashbacks, i thought she did. looking again, i think it was the way the fabric flared out while dancing that gave the illusion of a larger bustle:

alright, so, if this flashback takes place years ago, what gives? where's the bustle?!
bustle cages were collapsible, allowing the wearer to sit down. this was fine for lounging about the house or riding in a carriage, but for horseback riding, it would still be in the way.

so, even at the height of the bustle's popularity, a proper riding habit (like this one, worn by the empress of austria) would have No Bustle! (victorian edna mode would approve.)

lastly, my favorite part of this ensemble: the hat.
top hats were definitively "masculine" attire the victorian period. i was initially surprised to see her wearing one, but it turns out they were standard for riding habits as well! (though the veil seems to be unique).

one more appreciation tweet for the riding habit because LOOK AT IT! ugh i wish i could get less blurry screencaps

the final flashback look is this evening gown, which is worn in the infamous photograph with the king of bohemia.

the plunging neckline and lack of sleeves would have been absolutely unacceptable during the daytime, but as evening wear? that's a different story.
(though she should be wearing a pair of white, elbow- or near-elbow-length gloves.)

the neckline also seems a tad too dramatic, but then again, i'm not an expert. also her mere presence was scandalous enough—an extra bit of cleavage really didn't change the situation much!
pictured: evening gown, 1888, by worth.

this dress tells us that we're probably in the mid 1880s, as opposed to the early 1890s, based on skirt and sleeve shapes. the bustle, despite being a bit on the small side (but like i said, i'm no expert), is a firmly mid-80s style.

later, skirts would become more fan-shaped, and sleeves would grow to borderline absurd proportions, echoing an earlier trend in the 1830s (shown in the final image):

you can see these larger sleeves when we finally see present-day irene adler later in the episode. they haven't ballooned to 1830s size yet, but the signature puff sleeve is there.