The Fall 2023 semester at Mount Holyoke College was rocked in early October by an open siege on Palestine by Israel, which to the date of this writing has claimed nearly twenty-thousand Palestinian lives. Shock and outrage poured in from the Mount Holyoke community, accompanied—as expected of a liberal arts college—by art. One piece of art that stands out among the influx of posters, protest signs, and graffiti is the installation created by several of my Mount Holyoke peers. Composed of pro-Palestine art arranged in the shape of an olive tree on a giant sheet of fabric, a symbol of Palestine ..read more

Our class’s discussions on the fallen woman stereotype reminded me of the Madonna-whore dichotomy, which originated as a psychological complex but now finds itself a place in media and literature. The Wikipedia page has helpfully informed me that the Madonna-whore dichotomy appeared in Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock). What I’m more interested in is how the stereotype played itself out in the depictions of mothers and “fallen women” in the Victorian era. The mother figure was meant to be virtuous and sexually pure, despite having children, and the fallen woman figure was a woman who had f ..read more

Via https://www.vintag.es/2016/06/vintage-fashion-in-autochrome-stunning.html?m=1. In the early 1900s, the Lumiere brothers (likely a familiar name due to their influence on cinema) invented an early form of color photography. The science behind it was complex and it was certainly not convenient to produce the plates necessary to take photos in color, but the effect is astonishing even to modern eyes. I recall the first time I encountered an autochrome photograph while looking through images of Edwardian fashion; at the time, I was ignorant to the existence of early color photography and it w ..read more

I was first introduced to Yinka Shonibare’s work when I saw his piece Gay Victorians (pictured below) in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art a few years back. The patterns and bright colors of the fabric caught my eye. The fabric he uses in this work, and many of his others, is a cotton with an Indonesian batik design. Often seen in West African fashion, this fabric was first introduced to Africa by a Dutch company through colonization. It can also be found in London markets, which is where Shonibare buys it. Just the fabric itself has a complex history which is deeply entwined with Europea ..read more

I’ve spent a while going on about the costuming of Guillermo del Toro’s 2015 film Crimson Peak here, but would like to elaborate further on some of the film’s content that intrigues me, beyond the visuals. I’ve long been fascinated with the ways Victorian literature can break down the family structure or turn that site of safety to one of danger and insecurity. Our discussions of the domestic and motherhood this semester have certainly been in the back of my mind while thinking abut the film, as it is so concerned with domestic horror and tragedy. We’ve encountered many examples depicting the ..read more

Crimson Peak costumes at the FIDM, designed by Kate Hawley. One of my favorite films is Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak, a love letter of sorts to the gothic romance genre, and the Victorian gothic in general. The film’s costumes have been exhibited on several different occasions at various places, so I’ll be discussing the costumes broadly, as well as the insights into the process that some of the displays include. I’ve sourced my images from the following exhibits: the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Museum, 2016, and the Art Gallery of Ontario (& other locations) wher ..read more

“Victorian Masterpieces from the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico” is currently an exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York. When searching for current exhibits, the pieces within this collection caught my eye as they hold more in common than the provided description of Victorian paintings from the Museo de Arte de Ponce. The exhibit pieces are The Prince Enters the Wood by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, The King and His Court by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, The Sleeping Beauty by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Flaming June by Frederic, Lord Leighton, and The Escape of a Heretic, 1 ..read more

After spending most of my life in a big city, I have found that people-watching those who pass me on the street has become second nature. Even if it’s just admiring their fashion choices, simply stepping onto a busy street means that you are viewed by others. In the present day, we can glimpse what it must have been like to view those in the Victorian era through Victorian street photography. Pictures like those of the covenant garden flower women (pictured) allow us to better understand the economic struggles of the time, while also presenting the photographs’ subjects for our judgment.  ..read more

Even before rereading “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” for this class, I was familiar with the existence of an “Alice’s Adventures”-inspired musical, but this unit gave me an excuse to see what the musical was actually about, and whether it visually embodies the version of “Wonderland” seen in the original story.  “Wonderland,” formerly titled “Wonderland: Alice’s New Musical Adventure,” was on Broadway starting in March of 2011, and was forced to close in May of 2011 after negative reviews and a low box office made them lose millions of dollars. I believe that what “Wonderland” gets wr ..read more

While searching for virtual exhibits to explore, I stumbled upon “Victorian Virtual Reality,” which is currently on display at Watts Gallery. I’m sure that, like many, one of the first things to catch my attention was not the exhibition itself, but the archive from which it was partially built– none other than the personal collection of Sir Brian May. Yes, the Sir Brian May of Queen fame.  The exhibit explores “Stereoscopy,” which is the adding of depth to an image by having the viewer look at two images that are slightly off from each other. The exhibit contains historically Victorian st ..read more