The above newspaper article is advertising a large sale at a men's clothing store. This shows that fashion was seen as mandatory for those who afford it. this is seen when it describes their suits as "what a gentleman ought to have." It also shows what the value of a suit was in the time period. $3.85-$7.85 which translates to ~$100 dollars in today's money, which is the same price of many suits today.
This article is another advertisement for a sale at a clothing store; in this case however, it is advertising both men's and women's clothing. This advertisement shows that fashion was mostly reserved for the upper class in this time period. one of the boas being sold is going for $168 in today's money for this sale, but it's full price is $238 in today's money. Not only does this show that fashion was primarily for the wealthy but it also shows that women's fashion was significantly more expensive then men's because the suits from the last article where ~$100 in today's money which is less then half the price of the boa, which is only part of an outfit unlike the suit.
Pictures:
This image shows many of the common themes in fashion trends in the time period. One prominent feature of this time period was a high thin waist which was usually achieved by using a corset. Their dresses often consisted of many draped layers which where given an elliptical shape by wearing a petticoat.
The crinoline, also known as the "hooped skirt," was a type of petticoat consisting of many hoops of metal wire. This was done to shape the dress into the elliptical bell shape that was prominent in this time period. The crinoline was extremely hazardous however, as they where very flammable and could easily get caught on other things.
In the 1880s however the sizes of dresses began to slim drastically, and the crinoline was slowly replaced with regular petticoats made of layers of stiff fabric instead of hoops of rigid wire. These styles where more unique then the ones from earlier in this time period (as seen in the first period) that show little variety in pattern, color, or dress shape.
This picture from 1893 show an advertisement for corsets that is targeted towards men. This shows that a less extreme version of the same slim body standard applied to men.
Graph/Data:
This graph shows that a large portion of the stores in the 1800's where clothing stores. This suggest that it was considered one of the most important parts of one's life in that time period. It can also be noted that the amount of clothing stores is double that of health and well being suggesting that fashion was considered more important, and considering how dangerous wearing corsets and crinolines was this is clearly a common theme.