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If you don't mind a newbie stepping in here? I have often thougt the same. I'd like to ask if you had thought of the correlation between simplicity of the Regency, after Beau Brummel, period the result of being very much a "Man's World" and the fact that Queen Victoria was very young when she assumed the crown and liked the things of a young girl, flounces, ribbons, simple pleasures and clothing that accentuated her youthful charms.

It is my understanding that the years of the three George's and the extended time with George IV being Regent created a much more mature and sophisticated society... I often wonder what England's history would have been if the Prince Regent, George IV, had been able to assume the crown earlier before his life sunk into debauchery and extreme over-indulgences.

With Victoria having such a LONG reign, by the end of her term, what had been a knee-jerk reaction to the perceived lack of morality of the previous decades (with women wearing dampened dresses that were already sheer to hightlight and flatter more mature women of the period who were the favored of the older prince), what had been refreshingly sweet and pure minded time after Victoria first became Queen, evolved to a morose society burdened with unending gloom where everything was disapproved of by a prudish woman clinging to her dead husband... for 40 years? I always thought perhaps she was more fond of being her own boss than genuinely mournful... 3years, 5 years even, that could be true mourning, but 40 years... I thinks she protests too much!

Just another opinion,
Diana