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Athena, goddess of handcrafts and wisdom, will guide your odyssey through the knitting universe.
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Return of the reticule
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1900
|  Ladies of long ago tucked a few essentials into just such reticules and swept off for an elegant evening. Times have changed, but the appeal of elegance remains. The slink and sheen of many tiny beads delight the most modern knitters.
| Reticules, these beautiful and intricate beaded bags were my first and strongest impression of knit beads. Most of the bags are drawstring, or reticule style. The costume collection of the Goldstein Gallery of the University of Minnesota contains many reticules from both the early and late Victorian Era. Among the many intricate floral and mosaic-like patterned bags, four examples stood out because of the simple, yet ingenious technique. Two had metal closures; two were reticules. All were knit in garter stitch with beads simply placed between stitches. All shaping comes not through increasing and decreasing the number of stitches, but eh number of beads between them. These bags are simply executed, yet wonderfully conceived, and have a marvelous feel as the beads roll—seem to flow—over the hand. They call to mind Victorian corsets, curves, lace and feathers.
Here are elegant bags, easily copied, that seem to be called from the past to a second life in the 1980’s. But the Victorian Era lasted from 1837 to 1901—a very long time for fashions. When were these knit? What was the impetus for the technique, the time frame, the society and life of the knitters and wearers?
The fact that there were four bags in one Midwestern university collection led me to believe directions had been published in a ladies’ fashion or craft magazine. Periodical references point to the late 1890’s and early 1900’s for articles about beaded bags. Nearly all referred to the revival of beaded bags. They had been popular in the youth of the writers’ grandmothers. Most women regretted the fact that time requirements disallowed the finely patterned bags of their grandmother’s youth. Mary White writes in her book, How To Do Beadwork (1904), about the earlier, pictorial bags:
“The texture of these bags, silky and shimmering, is a joy, but not even for the pleasure of giving or owning such a beautiful thing would the woman of to-day spend so much time and pains. There are bags and purses both knitted an crocheted which are most attractive and quite within the range of possibility.”
Our bag belongs to the late Victorian time. Some searching narrowed the time to circa 1900. I had become enthralled with the era and was looking at every magazine available from 1898 to 1903. Suddenly, an advertisement showing one of the bags, in The Delineator for December 1902, sprang from the page. Eureka! It led to Home Needlework Magazine, October 1902. An article entitled, “Fancy Beaded Novelties,” by Emma A. Sylvester gives directions and says, “It is a duplicate of an imported design, and is known as the Florodora Knitted Purse.
What’s a Florodora? The Fashion Dictionary told of the Florodora Girl costume made popular by the chorus in the musical show, “Florodora,” in 1900. Music reference books gave information of the operetta, opening in London in 1899 and in New York at the Casino Theatre, November 12, 1900. The Florodora Girls were a sextette chorus, said to be much sought after and admired. They married well and became the American equivalent of the Gaiety Girls. The memory was strong enough in 1930 to prompt a movie, The Floradora Girl, to be made about the lives of the ladies.
Here was the inspiration, the life behind the fashion. The reticule was not an object in a vacuum, it had a history, a life, breath and soul. My pursuit was difficult to abandon. More search revealed a photo of the actual Florodora Girls; also the hit song from the play. Fashion plates from popular magazines showed styles knitters may have worn with the reticule they knit from magazine instructions.
This reticule was a style influenced by a popular play of an era in transition. Women were beautiful possessions during much of the Victorian Era, but that view began to change. The Victorian woman who stayed at home with fine handwork was changing rapidly to an educated, socially concerned woman. One of the most popular songs of the year 1900, “A Bird in a Gilded Cage,” is a strong plea against the hopeless situation in which women were beginning to perceive themselves.
“She’s only a bird in a gilded cage,
A beautiful sight to see,
You may think she’s happy and free from care,
She’s not, though she’s meant to be,
’Tis sad when you think of her wasted life,
For youth cannot mate with age,
And her beauty was sold,
For an old man’s gold,
She’s a bird in a gilded cage.”
In 1900 there were only 45 United States and a surplus of 46 million in the U.S. Treasury. Queen Victoria died in 1901, between the opening of Florodora on Broadway in 1900 and the appearance of the instructions in the magazine. Leaders were changing in life and art: Sarah Bernhardt to Isadora Duncan; Mark Twain to T.S. Eliot; Cezanne, Gauguin and van Gogh to Picasso, Kandinski and Klee; Strauss, Rachmaninoff and Ravel to Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) presented society a different self-image. Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams was published in 1900. A new century began.
In 1914, World War I forced many women out of the gilded cage to find work. Suffragettes were spreading the fight for a voice and a vote. A well-worn advertisement, “You’ve come a long way, Baby,” gives reference to the era. May I add, “Do you know where you’ve been?” You have the freedom to be and to wear what you please—to develop and design the style you want. Lessons from the past create a richer present. You are in control. Perhaps an old reticule with a new necklace...
| Lizbeth Upitis, Knitter's Issue 4
| Photo: Knitter's Issue 4
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