Let's take a quick look at what the Early Victorian woman of fashion would have ideally worn, courtesy of some plates from The New Monthly Belle Assemblee. It should be noted that only a minority of women wore clothes like this made of fine fabrics and intended for very specific occasions. Even most of the women who read this magazine might have seen them as more to be aspired to than actually worn!
As usual, the person who wrote the original descriptions of these plates interlarded the text with a lot of obscure French fashion jargon. The words for today are maucheron (an ornament worn on the upper sleeve) and demi toilette (a costume which is formal enough for most social occasions, but not quite as formal as full evening dress).
The main figure to the left of this fashion plate depicts a two-tiered "London Public Promenade Dress" in rose colour striped with cinnamon colour; worn with a mantelet of green and lavender shot satin, lined with lavender sarsenet (a soft silk fabric). The bonnet is of "pale orange satin" with velvet flowers.
The colours as described sound as if they should clash, however the fact that only natural vegetable dyes were available in the 1840s means that the effect might have been softer and less startling than we'd expect.
The figure on the right depicts a "Paris Public Promenade Dress" in blue and white Pekin (a striped silk fabric) with two deep flounces and a bonnet of blue. This costume seems altogether better coordinated than its London counterpart!
The half figures at the top are (from left to right) a Morning Visiting Dress, a Carriage Dress and a Demi Toilette.
The second plate from this magazine depicts at bottom left, a "demi toilette" in "one of the new shades of grey", trimmed with two "very deep flounces" and sleeves of "moderate width at the top, but increasing in size as [they] descend, and finished with a white satin bonnet, trimmed with pink and white ribbons.
On the right is a "carriage dress" in green and white shaded Pekin and trimmed with quilled ribbons down the front. The bonnet is of pink satin, trimmed with matching folds of tulle (a fine soft silk or cotton used for making veils and dresses).
The half figures at the top depict—from left to right—a Morning Dress (as a rule less formal than anything worn later in the day) in Victoria plaid, an Evening Dress for a Social Party and on the far right, another Morning Dress in "quadrilled Pekin".
Taking all these illustrations together, we can conclude that fashionable dress in 1843 consisted of full, bell-shaped skirts (often flounced), long pointed bodices cut and ornamented to make them appear even longer and more pointed than they actually were, and tight sleeves, set in low under sloping shoulders.
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