"Chit-Chat On Dress" (Cassell's Family Magazine, February 1895)

I managed to pick up another bound volume of Cassell's Family Magazine the other week.  This one is from 1895, but people who have been following this blog for a while might recall I own a similar volume from 1888.  In 1888 the magazine published a monthly "Chit-chat on Dress" column describing the latest fashions from London and Paris for its female readers.  By 1895 its emphasis had changed: it was still interested in fashionable dress, but it also offered dressmaking patterns so its readers could attempt to make their own versions of the garments described.  (Given the complexity of some of the garments, I suspect many readers enlisted the help of a local dressmaker.)

The February 1895 column begins with the following pronouncement:

SELDOM has Fashion so favoured the contour of a figure that has lost its youthful slimness as at the present moment. 

But let's take a look at a couple of the featured patterns. 

Lounge-Gown for Invalid
Our design... is made in old-rose pink velveteen and Irish point lace, with over-dress of cashmere in either light maize or grey.  The whole of the upper portion, that is, the yoke and sleeves, is made separate and mounted on a short-waisted lining reaching just below the armholes, and the over-dress, cut square back and front, is slipped over the head and fastened on each shoulder beneath the ribbons.

Just because you're unwell is no excuse for not looking your best!  Though the magazine doesn't say it explicitly, I suspect that it was designed for an invalid to receive visitors.  The magazine recommended that readers choose "colour and material best suited to the pale face of the wearer".

Costume in watered velvet and faced cloth:

The bodice is made with waistcoat and deep basque of the dark velvet and a narrow inserted piece over the bus, thus a slightness and length is given to the appearance of the waist.  A pretty jetted trimming edges the cloth over-bodice...  The handsome pleats at the back of the skirt are slightly stiffened to give them a good form, and are finished at the waist of the plain-fitting cloth bodice with jetted ornaments.  The inserted panel in front will be well worn either plain as in the sketch or crossed diagonally at intervals with ribbon or chains of jet and rosettes.

This costume is definitely geared to the more mature figure!  The gores of the skirt are cut to increase the apparent height of the wearer and the sleeves "slope away from the long shoulder seam" and are "cut and arranged as to not unduly widen the figure".  Cassell's Family Magazine emphasised the "imperative necessity" of buying a well-cut corset to wear underneath!