Victorian Sports Paper Dolls: A Review

So, the moment I learned Brenda Sneathen Mattox had a new paper doll book from Paper Doll Review of Victorian sporting outfits, I was in.

If there’s one myth about the Victorian era which won’t seem to die, it is the myth that women couldn’t do anything wearing a corset. The problem with propagating this myth is that it suggests women’s lack of agency in the 19th century European world was due to their clothing, rather than the patriarchal system that didn’t allow women a variety of basic rights.

So, anyway, Victorian Sports paper dolls got me excited, because women in the 19th century did lots of sports. We know this, because there’s extensive documentation. Tailoring magazines wouldn’t have published articles and patterns for women’s riding habits, hunting or hiking clothing if women weren’t out riding, hunting or hiking.

To start with the basics, the book has two dolls and 14 costumes. It measures 8.5 by 11 inches. The sports represented are Riding (1840s), Gymnastics (1850s), Croquet (1860s), Bathing (1860s), Hiking (1870s), Skating (1870s), Tennis (1880s), Baseball (1880s), Shooting (1880s), Fencing (1890s), Archery (1890s), Basketball (1890s), Cycling (1890s) and Golf (1890s). The costumes are beautifully rendered in colored pencil. I was particularly impressed by the tennis dress, because white is not an easy color to render.

The layout is great from the placement of the labels to the pairing of the costumes. There’s a subtle gradation to the pages that highlights the style of the art (which I think is colored pencil or watercolor? Not 100% sure). Additionally, a nice little bio in the beginning of Victorian Sports Paper Dolls tells about the artist, Brenda Sneathen Mattox. The book closes with a write up about Victorian sportswear by Lorna Currie Thomopoulos. The historian in me would have preferred something a little more in-depth about the topic, space was probably limited.

This is a book that feels really intentional and I love that.

The two dolls have wonderful faces that somehow feel very “healthy outdoors woman of the 1890s” to me. Their underwear is generic “19th century-ish” with the doll on the right looking more early 19th century and the doll on the left seeming more later 19th century. I did miss some indication of which costume went with which doll, even though they are facing different directions.

Some of the costumes had very wide skirts or a bicycle in the background which I suspect would benefit from a floating tab. The book doesn’t give an explanation or suggestion of floating tabs. That surprised me, because I learned about the handiness of floating tabs from a Brenda Sneathen Mattox book many years ago which had 1860s costumes. It’s a small thing, but paper doll functionality is important.

All in all, I was super pleased with Victorian Sports Paper Dolls and would certainly recommend you pick up a copy if you share my love of historical clothing, sporting or otherwise.

Actually, there’s several Victorian paper doll books from Paper Doll Review I love including this wonderful Worth book I own and should review someday and this book of non-white wedding dresses I don’t own, but want.