Cassell's Family Magazine (October 1888)

Cassell's Family Magazine wasn't a fashion magazines: it was a "general interest" magazine, mostly full of fiction.  However, it ran a monthly fashion column probably aimed at middle-class women who weren't particularly fashionable, but wanted to keep abreast of current styles.

This column was split into two halves, the first "From our London correspondent" and the second "From our Paris correspondent."  

 

"It is not often that cheapness and fashion go hand in hand.  We have to congratulate ourselves that this is the case now.  Wool is very inexpensive, and there is no material as universally worn.  Moreover, the patterns are good, the colours becoming and pretty, and the cloths well woven."

"Our London Correspondent" has decided to concentrate on the latest materials available rather than the latest styles.  This is perhaps not surprising given her readers would have been planning their winter wardrobes, a process that involved buying material and having it made up rather than choosing a garment off the rack in a shop.

And what colourful materials were fashionable in the autumn of 1888!  "Our London Correspondent" does her best to convey the vivid nature of these colours within the confines of a black and white magazine:

  

Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Ladies' cloth, in the best quality, is a fabric which is likely to last for years, and the tones this year are particularly tempting.  There is a rich and beautiful chesnut, which might be made up plain or embroidered, and nothing shows off silver, gold or black embroidery better than this particular tone.  The red, of the exact tint of soldiers' coats, is employed for pipings and vests; there are prunes, greys, browns, greens; and an enormous quanity of this cloth has been sold all over the country to the wholesale houses early in the autumn, and promises to be universally worn..."

"Ladies' cloth" is defined as a lightweight broadcloth used for making dresses.

"Plaids in green, red, blue and yellow, and all kinds of mixtures, are quite new; they are invariably fancy plaids and not those appertaining to the clans, and are very varied; checks run through them sometimes, and knickerbocker effects, as well as shaded stripes."

Perhaps the plaids looked something like this dress, worn in 1888 by the bride of Andrew Carnegie.

"Our Paris Correspondent" on the other hand, pays more attention to the latest styles, though she does inform us

"Some new and charming materials have been brought out this autumn, which are as costly as silk, although they are merely silk stripes on wool...

"...The new colours have all much warmth in them.  Women of fashion seem to care for bright tones, and to relieve the more sombre greys and browns with touches of some brilliant hue becoming to the complexion."

 

The picture reproduced above illustrates some of the latest styles as observed by Our Paris Correspondent:

"The Directoire still gives the inspirations as to style.  Our second illustration shows a modified coat of the fashionable cut, which would be a good manner of making up the new stripes of silk on wool, with plain material... If you examine the cut of the coat closely, you will see that it is in fact a Directoire jacket, which here and there has lengthened basques, forming panels...

"The accompanying figure wears a simpler coat, well suited to the plain and striped woolllens.  It has revers in the front, which turn back to show a short striped vest just draped in loose folds... The sleeve at the top is after the old leg of mutton shape to the elbow... This style is guaranteed to diminish the apparent size of the waist.  This costume is made of silver-grey cloth, stripes of silver being laid on the vest; beige-colour with gold is also suited to this new make..."

Stripes were obviously the flavour of the month in October 1888!  As for the "leg of mutton sleeves", they would grow and grow through the early 1890s until they became the enormous "balloon" sleeves of the middle of the next decade.