Photograph, ca. 1870

... And this carte de visite photograph, taken by Francis Guy of Cork around the same time Peterson's published the fashion plate I posted yesterday, show the fashions translated into clothes Miss or Mrs Average would wear.  As you can see they're somewhat less than elegant, though the lack of colour in this photograph may have robbed the garments of some of their original charm.  I wonder what shade they originally were?  Bright purple was popular in the early 1870s, a colour made recently available to all by the invention of the first artificial aniline dyes.

Peterson's Magazine, June 1870

This magazine spent over a month wandering around in the postal system after I bought it on eBay!  However it made its way to me at last - and included the delightful plate I've scanned here.  It depicts a selection of fashions from the early 1870s, the main features of which are high waistlines, bulky skirts supported at the rear by bustles and an abundance of frills.  All in all  dresses in this plate look rather overwhelming, and the women of the era who wore these fashions must have looked more like bundles of material than actual human beings!  Sleeker and more sinuous outfits became fashionable later in the decade.

Postcard, 1908

The subject of this real picture postcard has inscribed and dated it - "With best love, Ettie, 11/10/08" and has added on the back:

Hope this will remind you sometimes of your old chum, Ettie.

I don't know who she was addressing, but whoever they were they must have been important to Ettie as she has got rigged out in all her finery for the picture she sent them!

Postcard, ca. 1907

I found this little gem in a box labelled "Glamour", and it is clearly a publicity photo of an actress or some other kind of performer.  Unfortunately her name doesn't appear on the postcard so I can't identify her.  However she makes a pretty picture in her elaborate Edwardian evening dress, and the postmark on the postcard dates it to around 1907.  (This "Carte Postale" was originally published in France and the message on the back is written in French.  I wonder how it wound up in a bookshop in Melbourne?)

"Bisy Backson" (Pilochtry Knitwear, Spring 1982)

If I've been missing in action the past few weeks it's because I've been travelling - and managing to pick up a pile of early 60s fashion magazines and some Victorian and Edwardian photographs and postcards along the way. I have to sort them out and scan them before I can post them to this blog, so meanwhile ... here's a little something I found among the craft books in a charity shop today:

This little catalogue was produced by a Scottish mail-order knitwear firm in 1982 and shows some fashionably conservative clothes from the period.  Note, once again, the pie-crust frills on the shirts worn by the models in the top picture!  The pleated skirts were also very true to the era - in fact I can remember owning something like them myself!