This article addresses the origins and nature of the fad through a case study of the ‘Dolly Varden’ dress. The gown originated in the 1770s as a ‘polonaise’ among continental aristocracy, and experienced a minor revival in the 1840s when Dolly Varden, a character in Charles Dickens’s novel Barnaby Rudge (1841) was depicted wearing it. But it did not become a fad until the 1870s, after a Dickens-owned painting of the character was sold and the gown re-entered the public eye. Having shed its historical or literary connections, the gown was revived again in Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera Patience (1881), a well-known send-up of Aesthetic foibles. Often overlooked is the fact that dairy maid Patience – who figures in the opera as a counterpoint to the lovesick maidens wearing high Aesthetic garb – wears a Dolly Varden gown, as faddish as any Aesthetic gown, only slightly outdated. The Aesthetic afterlife of the dress demonstrates the mutability of Victorian fads and the gleeful ignorance of antecedents that typifies fad culture. Facilitated by the material and commercial innovations of the period and fuelled by an insistent presentism, fads are – this article argues – a truly Victorian phenomenon.

中文翻译：

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维多利亚时代的时尚：从狄更斯到耐心的多莉·瓦尔登

本文通过“Dolly Varden”连衣裙的案例研究探讨了这一时尚的起源和本质。这件礼服起源于 1770 年代，作为大陆贵族的“波兰舞曲”，并在 1840 年代经历了一次小幅复兴，当时查尔斯·狄更斯的小说巴纳比·拉奇 (Barnaby Rudge)（1841 年）中的角色多莉·瓦尔登（Dolly Varden）被描绘成穿着它。但直到 1870 年代，在一幅狄更斯拥有的角色画被售出，礼服重新进入公众视线之后，它才成为一种时尚。在摆脱了其历史或文学联系后，这件礼服在吉尔伯特和沙利文的喜剧歌剧《耐心》（1881 年）中再次复活，这是一部众所周知的美学弱点。经常被忽视的一个事实是，乳品女仆耐心——在歌剧中与身着高雅美学装束的相思少女形成对比——穿着多莉·瓦尔登礼服，像任何美学礼服一样时髦，只是稍微过时了。这件连衣裙的审美来世展示了维多利亚时代时尚的易变性以及对时尚文化典型代表的先行者的幸灾乐祸的无知。在这一时期的物质和商业创新的推动下，在坚持的当下主义的推动下，时尚——本文认为——是一种真正的维多利亚时代现象。