A Dolly Varden, in this sense, is a woman's outfit fashionable from about 1869 to 1875 in Britain and the United States. It is named after a character in

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

, and the items of clothing referred to are usually a hat or dress.

Name

Dolly Varden is a character from

's 1841 historical novel '' Barnaby Rudge'' set in 1780. The ''Dolly Varden'' costume was an 1870s version of fashions of the 1770s and 1780s.

Fashion

The term "Dolly Varden" in dress is generally understood to mean a brightly patterned, usually flowered, dress with a

polonaise The polonaise (, ; pl, polonez ) is a dance of Polish origin, one of the five Polish national dances in time. Its name is French for "Polish" adjective feminine/"Polish woman"/"girl". The original Polish name of the dance is Chodzony, meani ...

overskirt gathered up and draped over a separate underskirt. The overdress is typically made from printed cotton or

chintz Chintz () is a woodblock printed, painted, stained or glazed calico textile that originated in Golconda (present day Hyderabad, India) in the 16th century. The cloth is printed with designs featuring flowers and other patterns in different colour ...

, although it can be made from other materials such as lightweight

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

, silk and

muslin Muslin () is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq, where it was first manufactured. Muslin of uncommonly delicate hands ...

. An 1869

fashion doll Fashion dolls are dolls primarily designed to be dressed to reflect fashion trends. They are manufactured both as toys for children to play with and as collectibles for adults. The dolls are usually modeled after teen girls or adult women, thou ...

in the collection of the

V&A Museum of Childhood Young V&A, formerly the V&A Museum of Childhood, is a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum (the "V&A"), which is the United Kingdom's national museum of applied arts. It is in Bethnal Green and is located on the Green itself in the East End ...

is dressed in the Dolly Varden mode; unusually the outfit is in dark colours. The Gallery of Costume in Manchester holds a more typical Dolly Varden dress in its collections, made of white linen with a pink and mauve flowered print. A Dolly Varden hat, as it relates to the dress, is usually understood to mean a flat

straw hat A straw hat is a wide-brimmed hat woven out of straw or straw-like synthetic materials. Straw hats are a type of sun hat designed to shade the head and face from direct sunlight, but are also used in fashion as a decorative element or a ...

trimmed with flowers and

ribbons A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mate ...

, very like the 18th-century bergère hat. It is also closely related to the Pamela hat or "gipsy hat" that was popular during the earlier part of the century. Although the typical Dolly Varden fashion of the large overskirt and polonaise died out with changes in fashion at the turn of the century, the names continued to be associated with chintz patterned fabrics and peplum style dresses. Even in the late 1930s, chintz patterned fashions might still have the name 'Dolly Varden' attached to them.

Popular culture

The Dolly Varden fashion fad inspired many popular songs, such as G.W. Moore's "Dressed in a Dolly Varden" and Alfred Lee's

novelty song A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and wit ...

, "Dolly Varden", (published

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, 1872) which contains the lyrics: ''Have you seen my little girl? She doesn’t wear a bonnet.''
''She’s got a monstrous flip-flop hat with cherry ribbons on it.''
''She dresses in bed furniture just like a flower garden''
''A blowin' and a growin' and they call it Dolly Varden.'' In the 1870s, the Theatre Royal in London presented an entertainment called ''The Dolly Varden Polka'', composed by W.C. Levey. The fashion led to the naming of the

Dolly Varden trout The Dolly Varden trout (''Salvelinus malma'') is a species of salmonid fish native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. It belongs to the genus '' Salvelinus'', or true chars, which includes 51 recognized ...

and

Dolly Varden crab ''Hepatus epheliticus'', known by various names, including the calico crab (not to be confused with ''Ovalipes ocellatus'') and Dolly Varden crab, is a species of crab. It lives in shallow water in the western Atlantic Ocean from the Chesapeake ...

. In the second book of the novel ''

Alexandria Quartet ''The Alexandria Quartet'' is a tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960. A critical and commercial success, the first three books present three perspectives on a single set of events and character ...

'' by

Lawrence Durrell Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial p ...

, Scobie, a gay

Binbashi A ''binbashi'', alternatively ''bimbashi'', (from tr, Binbaşı, "chief of a thousand", "chiliarch") is a major in the Turkish army, of which term originated in the Ottoman army. The title was also used for a major in the Khedivial Egyptian a ...

, tells the protagonist Darley that when he cross-dresses he wears a Dolly Varden hat. One of the most famous uses of the name in theatre was the ''Dolly Varden''

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

which opened in 1902 starring

Lulu Glaser Lulu Glaser (June 2, 1874 - September 5, 1958) was an American actress and vocalist. She appeared on Broadway and later Vaudeville. Glaser's first appearance on the stage was at the Broadway Theatre in New York on December 30, 1891 in the play ...

. Although the main character fit the image of the Dickens character, the play itself was based on '' The Country Wife'' by

William Wycherley William Wycherley (baptised 8 April 16411 January 1716) was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for the plays ''The Country Wife'' and ''The Plain Dealer''. Early life Wycherley was born at Clive near Shrewsbury, Shropsh ...

. Another interesting occurrence of the name is in the eponymous decorative cake, a recipe for which features in the 1980 '' Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book''. Also known as a 'Princess Cake', the modern Dolly Varden cake uses the torso of a doll (sometimes called a doll pick) inserted into a conical cake which is then decorated as the doll's dress. 'Dolly Varden' aluminium cake tins are now broadly available from cookware retailers for this purpose. The name for the cake no doubt developed from the Dolly Varden dress. However, in the late 19th century, the Dolly Varden cake was different. Many recipes call for a double layered cake with one layer as a lemon or vanilla cake and the other as a rich spice or fruit cake. Chunks of cherries in the cake were often used to mimic the chintz of the fashion.Cedro, Carmel. 'Dolly Varden: Sweet inspiration' ''Australasian Journal of Popular Culture'', Volume 2, Number 1, 7 June 2012, pp. 37-46

References

External links

A more in-depth examination of various contemporary references to the Dolly Varden fashion, with illustrations

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dolly Varden (Costume) History of clothing (Western fashion) Dresses Hats 19th-century fashion 1870s fashion Fictional costumes