Petit Courrier des Dames, March 15, 1856

 Here we have an engraving of a couple of fashionable, very Victorian, outfits.  The wearers are swathed in yards of expensive and  heavily ornamented fabrics, and are covered almost entirely except for their faces.  It's clear that they can neither work nor exercise in such garments.  Their main function appears to be showing of their (husbands') wealth!

Ironically, it was the Industrial Revolution that made such retrograde fashions possible.  Mechanisation meant that fabrics could be produced in more abundance than ever before, and the mass production of hoop skirts meant that they could be sold cheaply and move from the salon to the streets in record time.  Our two well-to-do ladies would have work to do to keep ahead of the hoi polloi.  At this stage that meant wearing more of the most expensive fabrics, and hiding them beneath layers of labour-intensive decoration.

Two more important technological innovations took place in 1856.  The first was the invention of the first aniline dye, and the second was the formation of the Singer Sewing Machine Combination.  Fashion would become louder, faster, and more excessive in future decades.

 

TOILETTES DE VILLE

Chapeau orné de trois plumes sur la passe.—Robe de taffetas à deux jupes ornée d'une greque formée par trois velours.  Sur le corsage, une berthe ornée comme les jupes.  Manches formées par un gros bouillonné d'étoff, terminées par un large pagode.  Cols et manches en dentelles.

Chepeau en étoff et blonde orné de deaux plumes sur la passe, et un large nœd dont les bouts retombent sur le bavolet.  — Basquine en velours garnie le haute dentelle.— Robe en taffetas à trois volants et dispositions de velours. — Col, manchettes et mouchoir, en guipure.

[TOWN COSTUMES

Hat decorated with three feathers on the side. — Taffeta dress with two skirts decorated with a Greek key pattern made in three velvets.  On the bodice, a berthe decorated like the skirts.  Sleeves formed by a large bubble of fabric, ending in a large pagoda.  Lace collars and undersleeves.

Hat in fabric and blonde decorated with two feathers and a large bow whose ends fall on the flap. — Velvet basquine trimmed with fashionable lace. — Taffeta dress with three ruffles and velvet arrangements. — Collars, cuffs and handkerchief, in guipure.]

New Hats For Easter (Ladies' Home Journal, April 1934)

 NEW HATS—NEW THOUGHTS FOR SPRING: Easter means a new hat so take your choice from the cover...

The Ladies' Home Journal doesn't give you any information as to where you can find these oh-so-stylish hats.  However, the back view of the hat on the cover does show the modern reader how the wearers of those shallow, fashionably tilted hats managed to keep them on their heads.  The smaller hat at the bottom left is also dipped over the wearer's right eye: clearly it was the most up-to-date way of wearing one's hat in 1934!

What We Wore in '74: Polyester Double Knits (JCPenney, Spring and Summer 1974)

 Mostly it's the styles that define an era, but sometimes the material they're made of is just as important.  What muslin was to the Regency and "art silk" to the 1920s, polyester double-knit was to the 1970s.  It was stretchy and easy-care—hence it's popularity—but it was also sticky and smelly, unbreathable and uncomfortable.  It went out of fashion after a few years, but meanwhile the shops and mail-order catalogues were filled with a dazzling array of polyester garments.  Like, for example, this selection from JCPenney.

At left: Tailored shirt-style body suit (in polyester double-knit), long sleeveless vest (in polyester double knit), knitted check pants (in polyester double-knit).  Centre: Short sleeve tunic top in polyester double knit.  Kick-pleated pants in polyester double-knit.  Right: Tunic top in 2 sleeves length in polyester double-knit.  Knitted pattern pants, in polyester double-knit.

Groovy Styles in Simplicity Patterns (1960s-1970s)

 I had something completely different lined up for this week—then I stumbled across someone selling vintage patterns out of an old plastic bag at a market stall.  Clearly it was a Sign, and who am I to pass up blog material when it presents itself to me?  It looks like the original owner of the patterns was a fashion-forward young woman, eager to keep up with the latest trends.

First, from 1966:

1966

... Blouses, with a choice of cowl- or turtleneck, either long-sleeved or sleeveless.  The blouses were fastened by a zip up the back.

"Charming Bonnets" (The Ladies' Friend, January 1868)

 I've decided to let fashion go to my head again this week, with a look back to a time when respectable women (and not-so respectable women) felt obliged to wear some kind of head covering on nearly every occasion.

The magazine doesn't have a description of the bonnets (or the hats) illustrated, but it does have some general remarks on fashionable headgear:

The bonnet called in Paris the chapeau-capuchon is popular for the winter season.  It encases the hair at the back instead of leaving it uncovered.  The front of the bonnet is a fanchon¹ of colored velvet; the capuchon² is of tulle, and is tied below the chignon with a satin bow which matches the fanchon..

Charming bonnets are now made entirely of velvet flowers and velvet foliage.  A bonnet composed of small vine leaves, in either green or violet velvet, is very ladylike and distinguished.

Velvet bonnets of any color to correspond with the toilet, are trimmed with a gold or silver aigrette laid upon the edge of the border.

For dinner coiffures, lace lappets are added to the flowers and fruit, but these lappets do not form a cap; sometimes they fall over the chignon, sometimes they they are crossed and fastened there by a spray of flowers...

Young ladies almost uniformly wear the flat toquet.³  This somewhat singular headgear, placed on the top of a high chignon, comes sloping over the forehead, and to it is attached a masque voilette⁴ of black lace, coming down just to the lips, and tied in lappets at the back.

This last appears to be illustrated by the figure at the bottom left of the plate, and the dinner coiffure with its lace lappets, appears to be depicted at the top right.  These black and white drawings hardly seem to do the subject justice when you consider how rich and vibrant the bonnets must have been in real life!

(1. Kerchief

2. Hood

3.  The writer probably meant a "toque"

4. Literally "mask veil")

Lady's Coat, Lady's Frock... (Everylady's Journal, September 1926)

 ... Child's Frock (4 years)

These patterns demonstrate how women's clothes had been simplified by the middle of the 1920s.  The "lady's frock" (illustrated under the coat at left, and on its own at right) was made up of only three pattern pieces; the front and the back of the bodice and the skirt.

What We Wore in '74: Hats (David Jones, Spring and Summer 1974)

 Though hats had ceased being everyday wear by the 1970s, they were still available for those who wanted to wear them for a special occasion—at the races, perhaps, or at a wedding, or just adding a final touch to a trendy outfit.  

David Jones, Spring-Summer 1974

A: Be a shady lady in this lacy big brimmed beauty from the East.  Fun on any summer outing. 

B: Pack up your troubles with our packable floppy brim hat from Italy.  Comes up smooth and unruffled every time.

C: The snappy cap for sporty new summer looks.  With a gored crown and small visor.  In navy or red denim.

D: Import scarf hat for cool, collected casual wear.  Spun check cotton, with padded front, elastic back for perfect fit.

E: Romantic Italian natural straw, sporting a bunch of ripe red cherries.

F: A hot day special!  Medium brimmed cotton with gore crown.

Seventies nostalgia is very evident in some of these hats.  The deep crowns and shady brims of hats A, B and E recall the fashions of the late 1920s and early 1930s.