At first glance, the dresses below seem completely unsuitable for wearing on a beach—especially if the wearer is planning on walking on wet sand and exploring tide-pools. A second look shows that the models' dresses clear the ground—just—and that their bodices and hats are comparatively un-ornamented. This is probably as close to casual wear as it was possible to get in Victorian times.
The "Lady Dressmaker" who wrote the text accompanying these illustrations, had a lot of advice for her young lady readers who wanted to be well-dressed and up-to-date.
The French style of making dresses at present is anything but pretty; it reminds one of the farthingales of Queen Elizabeth's day, as the skirts are full and the hips are much padded out with an immense dress improver. The bodice is quite Elizabethan, for it is long-waisted, very tight, and the front darts are placed very high up...
The high neckband is still the principal feature of the dress, and if the dressmaker be not successful in that the effect of the front of the dress at least is spoilt. They are called straight, but they are in reality curved and cut on the cross. This is a most useful idea in one way... for the high band is quite protection enough from sunburn and that heated air which is almost worse in its tanning effect...
Bodices are made in several different ways—waistcoats, belted bodices with pleats like the Norfolk jackets, and many bodices trimmed to represent the Zouave jacket. Many Jersey bodices are worn both with and without waistcoat fronts, and they seem likely to be made up for the autumn with light woollens...
All the varieties of bibs, plastrons and blouse-fronts are as much used as ever just now; white ones are in fashion and are generally pinned on over the bodice front, not fastened in; when really fastened in as a portion of the dress they frequently have straps across of the bodice material buttoned over the fronts.
Stripes continue very popular, and a few dresses have been made of them, but as a rule they are reserved for trimmings and waistcoats, and are sometimes even used horizontally. Striped and plain materials mixed need great care in the making-up as the stripes must be joined so very accurately, and where the bodice is of the stripes they must neither be too straight nor too much slanted. I have often noticed in striped materials that they proved most unbecoming to some figures, and wondered why so. The reason, I find, is that the material has been wrongly used in unskillful hands...
The parasols of unlined lace now seen are the most idiotic of introductions, for they do not give shade, and they do not conduce to the beauty of the tout ensemble...
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