Fashion - Bachelor

Mourning Sickness FW26

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Cameron Votan Mentorship

Mourning Sickness FW26 delves into the strict rules of women’s Victorian funeral wear and how grief was a dramatic performance to the public that alienated women from society, a custom formed in reaction to Queen Victoria mourning her husband. A Victorian woman would go through four types of mourning that could span across 2 years for a widow, far more drastic than a man’s, who would wear a black band around the arm for six months before being allowed to marry again.

Grace Louie

Deep Mourning

The first type of mourning consisted of matte, deep black fabrics, pleated fabric manipulations and veils to cover the face. A large part of Victorian mourning attire was mourning jewelry, which featured either locks of hair inside a locket pendant or necklaces and bracelets made entirely out of the deceased’s hair. In this silhouette, the outer shell of the coat is constructed from a matte melton suiting, contrasted with a shiny yarn applique that mimicks braided hair. This mimicking of hair was further added by the use of long pile fur sandwiched into the seams of the coat. The yoke on the chest recreates the yoke shapes on Victorian blouses and dresses. Instead of a veil, an exaggerated tall collar sprouts out of the neck of the coat, constructed using inverse box pleating and polyester boning.

(Lining and suiting of the coat was made from deadstock/reclaimed materials)

Model: Fae Workum

First Mourning

The second type of mourning introduced less harsh tones of black. Mimicking black mourning pins used to pin veils and accessories, the shirt has no seams and all panel were attached using black hook and eye tape. Further leaning into the mourning jewelry and hair (which will be featured in all silhouettes of the collection), the back of the shirt features a topstitched design of an ornate locket frame. The hair of the model has been tucked into the shirt to peek out of the frame, as if the back of the top was a piece of mourning jewelry itself.

The skirt was hand pleating using a pleating board, made of taffeta and dupion. Pleating was heavily used in Victorian mourning clothing as a way to create visual interest and volume without being too decorative and introducing new textures.

(All fabrics in the silhouette are deadstock/reclaimed. The dupion and taffeta used in the skirt were sourced from The Nest Haberdashery)

Model: Elena Johnson

Second Mourning

The third type of mourning introduces white accents into the black wardrobe. The top of the outfit is a reverse blazer, a subversive take on the traditional Victorian high collar. The sleeve features a cutout at the upper arm, gathered in a drawstring tied with braided hair. The trousers feature many inverse box pleats to create volume like a bifurcated skirt. Half of the silhouette is covered in an accentuated hand basted pinstripe pattern.

(All fabrics in the silhouette are reclaimed, sourced from The Nest Haberdashery)

Model: Grace Louie

Half Mourning

In the last stage of mourning, as women began to reintegrate themselves into society, colour began to slowly make a return into a woman’s wardrobe, now permitted to wear shades of purple and grey. The spiral steel boned corset features lacing on the sides, a detail used in Victorian maternity corsetry. Black crepe, a fabric commonly used in traditional funeral wear, was done all over the panels of the corset to reveal muted purple taffeta. Braided hair was sewn along the sides of the boning channels as well as along the binding.

This reference to Victorian maternity wear was a nod to the discourse that I had come across when researching Victorian funeral wear, looking at how these rules were formed by women themselves in reaction to seeing Queen Victoria mourning her husband. Many historians had argued that alienating widows from society was a way of ensuring a woman would be without child when she re-enters society, while others argued that women were the ones willingly putting themselves into alienation. Mourning was a performance to show the world how deeply devoted a person was to honouring the memory of the deceased. Were these customs actually oppressive or were Victorian women just devoted to the drama?

(All fabrics in the silhouette are deadstock/reclaimed. The cotton crepe and sillk organza were sourced from The Fabric Store and the taffeta and other skirt fabrics were sourced from The Nest Haberdashery.)

Model: Alayna Macaulay

Grace Louie

Grace Louie is a fashion designer based in Meanjin/Brisbane. Her work pulls inspiration from the avant garde, combined with subversive themes and aesthetics from alternative music she grew up listening to. While completing her fashion design studies, she has been quietly working on her own slow fashion label, FELL FROM GRACE, available locally at Practice Studio in West End.