Shotglass (left), during hot Texas weather, just wears her undies out in public. Since she's playing a Soiled Dove, she can do that. (She wasn't then, but she's shooting a Cimarron Lightning now.)
You don't have to shoot to wear Victorian Era clothes to CAS events.

Powderpuff (left), at Trailhead '01 won Women's Traditional. She also wins costume costumes with her realistic costumes. They're not always easy to shoot in. Her costumes are always realistic and make no concessions to the demands of stages designed by men who don't wear floor length skirts too often. She's shooting a full-sized 5.5" barreled revolver. Her leather gear looks authentic, too, though a nice lady didn't wear a pair of matched six-shooters on her hips while in town to shop too often.

Deadeye Dawn (right) dresses in the less naughty garb of a frontier woman. She's shooting black powder and does it with the men because there's no women's black powder class. (Note the Cimarron Lightning)

Then there's the Cowgirl costume, either movie or Wild West Show. Looks good, and you can shoot wearing it. Note the Buscadero holsters, almost a necessity for women because of their body shape. Also note the Cimarron Lightning pistols. They're hard to find in stock because every woman in SASS seems to want one.

Same rules apply for starting out. In the old west women wore men's clothing while working, so you can, too. Frankly, the men in the sport want more women in it so much they don't care what you wear. A lot of the top shooting women wear pants, suspenders, shirts, and boots while shooting matches for practical reasons. Authentic long dresses trip them up running and going prone (not a common problem, but it's happened). And they get destroyed shooting matches. So they save the Victorian Ball Gowns for the Saturday night costume party. Others go all out all the time. Again, it's fun, not a requirement.

Remember, you can also dress like a TV or movie character, so authenticity isn't required. Check out some of those old movies and their 1930's cowboy fashions, with belts (belt loops are a 20th century invention) and "smiley face" shirts and the like. One local shooter shows up looking like Gene Autry or Roy Rogers at matches. Ditto goes for women. You can dress like Dale Evans and find it's a pretty practical costume.

And yes, some of the ladies dress like soiled doves. One was given a penalty at a match for popping out of her low cut fantasy soiled dove costume, not, obviously, by me. Again, it's fun. Dress the way you want to.

Next: Let's talk about Gun Leather