Late Victorian Dresses and Jewellery

For my Estella creation I thought it would be fun to have her wearing a victorian style dress and some Victorian inspired jewellery. I noticed, after looking at many victorian style dresses, that a popular style was to have a lot of the chest showing and sometimes the shoulders, with a jewelled necklace to add some decoration. It was very popular to have slightly puffy sleeves and a puffing skirt, but with a tight waist to emphasise the women's curves. I have given some examples of the dresses I am referring to here. 

Queen Victoria
http://www.luxuryandlifestyles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/queen-victoria.jpg

A sketch of examples of dresses in the late Victorian era.
http://www.fashionlady.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/BallgownsLate19th1.jpg

Daniel Deronda based in 1867.
http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/daniel-deronda.jpg

I found this dress in my mum's wardrobe. It was my grandmother's bridesmaid dress for her wedding and I thought it looked very similar to the victorian style dresses I had been looking at above.

I found that a lot of the victorian jewellery was very bold and had many jewels on them; they were definitely statement pieces. However I also found more subtle necklaces that looked more elegant and feminine which I thought would work better for Estella's younger character. I have shown some beautiful examples below of the more understated necklaces that I found.

Antique Victorian Natural Pearl & Diamond Necklace
http://www.beladora.com/store/504905_antique_
victorian_natural_pearl_and_diamond_necklace

Victorian Antique Necklace & Earring Set
http://www.olivierlaudus.com/products/victoria-antique-necklace-earring-set.html

Early Victorian Diamond Bow Pin
http://www.langantiques.com/products/item/50-1-1730

After rummaging through my mum and grandma's jewellery collections, I found a necklace that I thought looked very similar to the ones I showed above. The shape of the necklace is very similar to the two necklaces above, with the jewels running along the necklace and also some dangling down. The fact that there are bows on the necklace was inspired by the image above of the victorian diamond bow pin I found. I think that by the necklace having bows on it, it gives the necklace a younger and more fun and girly feel about the necklace. The jewels on my necklace are yellow and silver which I also think are fun and bright colours, representing how Pip feels about Estella. I will be using both the dress and this necklace in my final Estella interpretation as I think they both fit the character well.