Thread by @lainasparetime

Are y'all ready for a different sort of #LainaReadsAnne thread? Today we're going to be trying to figure out the time period that Anne of Green Gables is set in and talking about the fashion of that time.

#LainaReadsAnne This is going to be a multi-part thread with a lot of images. Seriously, I have like 10 pages of notes and a LOT of pictures bookmarked.

So I'm gonna ask y'all to be patient with the speed on this one, okay?

#LainaReadsAnne Let's start with what we know about the time period of Anne of Green Gables. (Not any of the sequels - in this thread, I will be treating AOGG as a standalone work.)

First, Montgomery wrote it in 1906 so it can't be any later than that.

#LainaReadsAnne In "Anne to the Rescue", the Prime Minister who's visiting Charlottetown is definitely John A. Macdonald. Marilla comments on his nose and that was something many political cartoonists caricaturized about him.

#LainaReadsAnne He was Canada's first Prime Minister, and also technically the third as he served twice with another dude between his two terms. The first time was from 1867 to 1873 which is way to early to be Anne's time period IMO.

#LainaReadsAnne Going by the fashion of the time alone, you're looking at straight, tight sleeves and bustles. Puffed sleeves don't fit.

#LainaReadsAnne John A. Macdonald's second term was from 1878 to 1891. "Anne to the Rescue" takes place in January of Anne's second year at Green Gables. December of Y2 is when Matthew gives Anne the Christmas dress, and that year the size of the puffs have gotten even larger.

#LainaReadsAnne Let's backtrack slightly and define our time periods.

Canada became a country (according to white people) in 1867. I'm sure y'all knew that. In any of the time periods Anne could be set in, the British influence will still be very strong.

#LainaReadsAnne Because of that, in this thread, I'm going to use the British eras for reference. (Eras in British history refer to who was ruling at the time.) Queen Victoria = the Victorian era. King Edward VII, her son = the Edwardian period.

#LainaReadsAnne Victoria's reign was 1837 to 1901, and Edward was on the throne 1901 to 1910, but there is actually some overlap when you're talking fashion, since fashion changes aren't instant. Like, if you look at early 1990s, they look very 1980s.

#LainaReadsAnne As well, sometimes the term Edwardian is retroactively applied to fashion things that happened during the actual Victorian period as Edward was a big leader and influencer of fashion. So some stuff from before 1901 can be considered Edwardian.

#LainaReadsAnne I know it's a bit complicated, but we're all on the same page, yeah?

Also Victoria Day is May 20th this year. Her birthday was May 25th so our holiday is the Monday before the 25th. May long weekend is also my town-wide garage sale. Not related, just a fun fact.

#LainaReadsAnne As Canada is a Commonweath country, obviously the British influence was huge. And still is, to some extant. We have the Queen on our money, we have Victoria's day, Boxing Day, we spell thing with u's.

#LainaReadsAnne It was even greater in Anne's time period, though. Canada was colonized under Queen Victoria's reign. So when we're talking fashion, it makes the most sense to me to look to that direction than to look to the US for context.

#LainaReadsAnne Another thing I find interesting - they have afternoon tea in Anne, and Queen Victoria was the one who made that a Thing. One of her ladies in waiting began having a small meal in the afternoon, usually around 4, as she couldn't wait for til a 9pm dinner.

#LainaReadsAnne (I get that. My blood sugar isn't down for that schedule either.)

The lady would invite friends into her dressing room for it and Victoria caught wind of it and really liked the idea, and it became an elaborate thing. That's where "tea gowns" are from.

#LainaReadsAnne Which I'm not going to get into because this thread is going to be long enough, but look up sometime. That was in the 1850s and you can see how normalized it is in Anne by our time period.

I just thought that was neat lol.

#LainaReadsAnne So, 1870s fashion we talked about.

Moving into the 1880s, it's not too different. Still narrow sleeves, and skirts narrow as well besides a brief resurgence of the bustle in the middle of the decade.

#LainaReadsAnne This is, I believe, the fashion period that Marilla is using to make Anne's dresses in the beginning of the book.

Great picture from the mid 1880s - from this site, used with permission mcelroy.ca/history/graydo…

#LainaReadsAnne This was a wealthy family from Ontario wearing their best clothes, so this wouldn't be so much everyday clothes but it helps you get the idea.

Random trivia, the lady on the bottom left with the very short hair - she may have been recovering from a bad illness.

#LainaReadsAnne A lot of the time when women in this time period cut their hair very short, it was because they were very seriously ill and couldn't manage the upkeep.

#LainaReadsAnne In general, your early 1880s has a lot of 1870s influence... typical for most decades of fashion. It's pretty minimal in silhouette.

#LainaReadsAnne The bustles from the later half of the decade are kind of great though. (Bustles are the big butt bumps.) This isn't even as big as they could get.

#LainaReadsAnne Going up to the very end of the 1880s, you're still in that same area.

Some stuff from 1888.

#LainaReadsAnne And some stuff from 1889

#LainaReadsAnne Oh and this is a series of photos from I think an ice show in early 1889 which... what is going on in this ice show? There's another I can't find now, I think, where her skirt is just a tennis net?

#LainaReadsAnne Okay, back to establishing our timeline. Sleeves begin to puff as we move into 1890. Some of these pics have specific dates which is super cool.

So, we have March 1890, May 1890, and July 1890.

#LainaReadsAnne I particularly like this one from December 1890 that's titled as "Nidd, Mrs. & Friend" and how much it looks like an awkward prom picture.

#LainaReadsAnne Whoops, I think that last one was actually October 1890. This one is December 1890.

#LainaReadsAnne Moving into 1891, the sleeves continue to get larger but usually not as huge as they'll eventually become.

Also I keep wanting to make up backstory for these people. Like that second picture especially. Who are they?

#LainaReadsAnne More from 1891

#LainaReadsAnne Now the reason I'm focusing a little extra on 1891 is because that is the absolute latest that "Anne to the Rescue" could happen. John A. Macdonald was no longer Prime Minister after June 1891.

He was also dead.

#LainaReadsAnne I found a couple articles that referenced Macdonald visting P.E.I. in 1890, but it was a casual visit to a Senator friend in Charlottetown. The political meeting of the book seems to be purely fictional.

#LainaReadsAnne That Senator friend just happened to be Donald Montgomery, one of L. M. Montgomery's grandparents. (Her father's father, not the one she lived with.)

Montgomery even met Macdonald on that visit. It happened in August 1890.

#LainaReadsAnne There's an article out there called "The Hijacking of "Anne"" by Virginia Careless that puts the year Anne came to Green Gables as 1880. She uses the sequels to make this timeline and honestly?

#LainaReadsAnne My suspicion is that as we get into sequels we'll mostly discover that Montgomery wasn't great at math.

Careless uses later events that I'm not looking at because I only want to use evidence from AOGG itself for this particular thread.

#LainaReadsAnne And I'm sorry, but puffed sleeves were NOT a thing in 1880.

Do you see a sleeve puff??

#LainaReadsAnne Careless says, "That date is more in keeping with her
longing for puffed sleeves in 1880, when she came to Green Gables. In 1877,
her eleventh year according to the Treasury, such sleeves were not possible
with the fashions then current."

NOPE makes no sense!

#LainaReadsAnne I know the article is from 1992 but like. You got paid for that, Careless.

#LainaReadsAnne Going by the date of Macdonald's visit to Charlottetown and his death, and the fashion trends of the time, I am comfortable saying Anne came to Green Gables between 1889 and 1891.

#LainaReadsAnne Specifically I think she came in June 1890. I think Macdonald's fictional visit happens in 1891, and Anne gets her dress in December 1891.

Thing in the sequels may contradict this, but that's where I think we stand judging by AOGG alone.

#LainaReadsAnne The timeline I think works:
1890 - Anne comes to GG in June, is 11, Y1
1891 - Croup in January, Christmas dress, Anne is 12, Y2
1892 - Hair dye, Queen's class, Anne is 13, Y3
1893 - Mostly just a lot of school, Anne is 14, Y4

#LainaReadsAnne 1894 - Queen's exam, white sands hotel concert, Anne is 15, Y5
1895 - Year at Queen's, Matthew's death, Anne is 16, Y6

#LainaReadsAnne Also you can't just say any puffed sleeve fits Anne's time period. Sleeve puffs in the 1830s are much lower than the ones in the 1890s (and beyond). Plus it doesn't work with the tea thing.

...can you tell I've discovered some pet peeves?

#LainaReadsAnne I think that's about good for today. Not the last thread you'll be seeing on this though! We have many things to discuss.

#LainaReadsAnne Shout out to Library and Archives Canada collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac-bac/search… and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's fashion plate collection metmuseum.org/art/libraries-…

Both were big helps in this and future threads.

#LainaReadsAnne Also this is a very labour intensive series of threads? So if you wanna throw a bit of something something in ye old tip bucket, I would appreciate that a lot ko-fi.com/A0602GN