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03/09/2022 07:30 AMIf you think women’s corsets caused fainting spells during the Gilded Age, think again—and this time, think spandex-style shapewear. As Kandie Carle, aka The Victorian Lady is quick to note, today’s women also love their curve-forming undergarments, yet don’t faint while in its fashionable grip.
“Those of us who do living history programming, one of the things we find so prevalent are these stereotypes that get passed down, and you just cannot get them to go away. And one of the biggest is they were always fainting because their corsets were too tight! I go into great detail as to why that is not the case.”
It’s just one of many myths Kandie delightfully dispels during her talks on many aspects of vintage ladies’ lives, all while dressing in authentic garb of the day, from undergarments to upper layers and accessories. On Saturday, March 19, those who register in advance can meet The Victorian Lady, straight from the Gilded Age (1890), at Branford’s James Blackstone Memorial Library from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Registration for the free program is open now at this link.
In addition to presenting programming from the 1890’s Gilded Age, Kandie has decades of experience representing fashion and lifestyles of the 1860’s Civil War period, 1900’s Edwardian Era, and, more recently, Regency fashion (assisted by a pair of dress forms adorned as Mr. Darcey and Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice—learn more at www.kandiecarle.com).
When it comes to her living history presentations, Kandie is out to share the truth of these times, rather than what may have been spotlighted as reality through the likes of movie magic or stories attached to period furniture.
“You see movies like Gone with the Wind and you think everyone has to have an 18-inch waist. Not so! You see countless house tours, and they show you the fainting couch, which, check it out—there is no such thing,” says Kandie, who plies her historic talks with humor and uses her extensive acting experience to weave in the graceful speech of the day. “These are things that have come down the pike which I feel are not only necessary to clarify and myth-bust, but also to really get it real, and talk about the everyday. That’s why I’ll talk about the chamber pot versus indoor plumbing!”
It’s no coincidence that Kandie’s Branford visit coincides with the Blackstone’s 125th anniversary celebration this year, says Blackstone programming coordinator Jenna Anthony. The Victorian Lady will be the very first 125th anniversary celebration program at the Blackstone this year, as well as the celebration’s first in-person program.
“We’re excited to have her, because she’ll be talking about what it was like to be a woman in the 1890s and give you more of a day-to-day experience of what it was like to be an average person in that time period,” says Anthony.
Focusing on everyday people from the time period she represents is especially important to Kandie, who works to keep fact-based history alive through her talks. When it comes to the Gilded Age, elements many today may accept as part and parcel of that long-gone era have likely been colored by “copious amounts of information” recalling the time’s more notable, often extremely wealthy families, such as the Vanderbilts, Kandie explains.
“Is that the norm? No,” she says. “Just as, 125 years from now, I probably will not be remembered, but the Kardashians are going to be all over the place! So I like to represent everyday, middle-class folks who had to get up in the morning and get through their day, just like us. The difference is, I will be dressed in a way that is very foreign to most people today.”
If this were an evening soirée, Kandie would likely visit the Blackstone on March 19 in her “quite spectacular” evening wear (pictured). But as this is an afternoon celebration with spring approaching, she’ll be arriving in suitable garb for that moment in time.
“This is a 125th anniversary, so if it was 1897 and I was celebrating, what would I wear? It all depends on the event, the time of the year, and the time of the day,” she says.
Drawing from an awe-inspiring wardrobe of vintage and authentic reproduction pieces (many hand made by Kandie), she exhibits the clothes as she discusses them with her audiences.
“I start from the inside out,” with the undergarments of the day, Kandie adds. “By the end of the program, everyone will now be able to look at the pictures from 1890 and say, ‘I know what she’s wearing underneath there!’”
She’ll also be showing those things a lady couldn’t be without when out and about. While it may seem surprising to learn how little women would carry around with them in their reticule (handbag)—perhaps just a handkerchief and some calling cards—”they adorned themselves” with many other must-haves, Kandie notes. Eyeglasses hung from a pendant chain, and many more useful items were attached by a series of chains streaming from a chatelaine. The French word translates to “lady of the house” and also was the word used for a decorative belt hook or clasp women wore at the waist, Kandie explains.
“I have a really interesting chatelaine; mine is leather, most are metal,” she says. “And hanging from that is bunch of little things you might use,” including a notepad, which is not unusual, when you consider modern folks also carry around a notepad, as well as many other useful items, within their smart phones.
With March designated as Women’s History Month, Kandi says it’s also important to note that women of the Gilded Age carried on the cause of the Suffragette movement. In fact, she and many other living history program professionals had prepared special in-person presentations for 2020’s 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to vote, but the presentations never came to light, due to the pandemic.
“This is the time period where Elizabeth Cady Stanton has passed the torch, basically, to Susan B. Anthony and a number of other ladies,” Kandie says of 1890, adding that’s not the only significant earmark of this extraordinary era.
While the Gilded Age was “the last hurrah of the Victorian era,” Kandie says it also was a time of “the robber barons, the incredibly impoverished immigrants, and amongst all of that melee, there was a recession in the 1890s, and the Suffragette movement, which was really trying to gain ground—and oh, throw in the Spanish-American War” of 1898.
In addition, there was “a great deal of bias, and racism and class-ism; lots of ‘isms’,” says Kandie.
She feels it’s necessary to remember all of what took place in an era as “we do tend to glorify and look back on things as nicer than our current times.”
When she arrives on March 19 in Branford, Kandie will be coming to the Blackstone for her second visit from her hometown in East Haddam. In 2015, appearing in Edwardian garb and tone, she hosted Friends of the Blackstone’s hugely popular Afternoon Tea at Downton Abbey.
“What I love about the Blackstone is you’re still in that building of that time,” says Kandie. “Libraries are also some of my absolute favorite places to do my performance. They are places of education and they’re a place of community. I’m just very pleased to be in a place that’s become the heartbeat of the community.”