Plates from "The New Monthly Belle Assemblee" (December 1843)

 It's the end of the year, and time to start looking at the fashions of Decembers past.  Let's start with these fashion plates from The New Monthly Belle Assemblee" in December 1843:

 

 

 The full length figures depict (on the left) a carriage dress of red velvet, worn under a Cashmere shawl, while on the right is a public promenade dress of grey alpaca ornamented with braiding, worn underneath a cloak of pale brown watered satin.  At top the half length figures show a morning visiting dress, an evening dress in light green satin and a carriage dress.

 

Once again starting with the full length figures: on the left is a public promenade dress in broad pink and narrow black stripes, worn with a dark blue velvet mantle trimmed with sable fur.  On the right is a carriage dress in satin, under a cape in grey Cashmere bound with green satin.

At the top the half length figures depict: a morning dress, a morning visiting dress and a demi-toilette.  "Demi-toilette" (literally, "half-dress") has been variously defined as a "subdued evening dress" and as a dress worn for a daytime party.   As the model here is depicted as wearing a bonnet with her "demi-toilette" I would say that it is intended for day wear.

"The New Monthly Belle Assemblee" (October 1843)

Let's take a quick look at what the Early Victorian woman of fashion would have ideally worn, courtesy of some plates from The New Monthly Belle Assemblee.   It should be noted that only a minority of women wore clothes like this made of fine fabrics and intended for very specific occasions.  Even most of the women who read this magazine might have seen them as more to be aspired to than actually worn!

As usual, the person who wrote the original descriptions of these plates interlarded the text with a lot of obscure French fashion jargon.  The words for today are maucheron (an ornament worn on the upper sleeve) and demi toilette (a costume which is formal enough for most social occasions, but not quite as formal as full evening dress).

 

 The main figure to the left of this fashion plate depicts a two-tiered "London Public Promenade Dress" in rose colour striped with cinnamon colour; worn with a mantelet of green and lavender shot satin, lined with lavender sarsenet (a soft silk fabric).  The bonnet is of "pale orange satin" with velvet flowers.  

The colours as described sound as if they should clash, however the fact that only natural vegetable dyes were available in the 1840s means that the effect might have been softer and less startling than we'd expect.

The figure on the right depicts a "Paris Public Promenade Dress" in blue and white Pekin (a striped silk fabric) with two deep flounces and a bonnet of blue.  This costume seems altogether better coordinated than its London counterpart!

The half figures at the top are (from left to right) a Morning Visiting Dress, a Carriage Dress and a Demi Toilette.

The second plate from this magazine depicts at bottom left, a "demi toilette" in "one of the new shades of grey", trimmed with two "very deep flounces" and sleeves of "moderate width at the top, but increasing in size as [they] descend, and finished with a white satin bonnet, trimmed with pink and white ribbons.

On the right is a "carriage dress" in green and white shaded Pekin and trimmed with quilled ribbons down the front.  The bonnet is of pink satin, trimmed with matching folds of tulle (a fine soft silk or cotton used for making veils and dresses).

The half figures at the top depict—from left to right—a Morning Dress (as a rule less formal than anything worn later in the day) in Victoria plaid, an Evening Dress for a Social Party and on the far right, another Morning Dress in "quadrilled Pekin".

Taking all these illustrations together, we can conclude that fashionable dress in 1843 consisted of full, bell-shaped skirts (often flounced), long pointed bodices cut and ornamented to make them appear even longer and more pointed than they actually were, and tight sleeves, set in low under sloping shoulders.

"The New Monthly Belle Assemblee" (September 1843)

These were advertised on eBay as "French fashion plates", but were in fact from an English magazine.

Though fashions changed slowly in the 1840s and the modern fashion industry barely existed, Paris was already established as the fashion capital of the western world.    English fashion magazines would often try to appropriate the cachet of French fashion by larding their reportage with French phrases and technical terms.   The descriptions accompanying the plates below are fairly good examples of this kind of writing:

PUBLIC PROMENADE DRESS—Robe of soie cameleon, the corsage made quite high, and tight to the shape; is trimmed around the top with lace standing up, and decorated in the heart style, with a pelerine, trimmed with ribbon plaited à la vielle.   Long tight sleeves, finished with a lace ruffle, and a plaiting of ribbon at the top.  The skirt is decorated with a biais which reaches nearly to the knee, and is headed by a plaiting of ribbon.  Pink crape bonnet, a small round open brim, the interior trimmed with roses; the exterior with a torsade and coques of ribbon, and a bouquet of white plumes aerienne.

*Corsage—bodice.

*Pelerine—a women’s cloak with a short back and long ends at the front.  For the rest, this description boils down to a silk dress with high neck and long sleeves, decorated with lace and ribbons.

OPEN CARRIAGE DRESS—Changeable silk robe, the corsage is high at the back, but descending en V at the bosom; it is trimmed with lace.  Tight sleeves, with lace ruffles falling over the hand.  Straw-coloured poult de soie chapeau, an oval brim, the edge trimmed with ribbon à la Vielle, and the interior with coques of ribbon, and brides tied in full bows and ends; the exterior is decorated with a white willow plume, a torsade of ribbon and a knot behind.  Mantelet-écharpe of India muslin, trimmed with point d’Angleterre.

CARRIAGE DRESS—Pekin robe, shaded in pink and blue, with satin spots thrown up; the corsage high at the back, and tight to the shape, opens in richly embroidered habit-shirt, with a rounded collar of two falls.  Long, tight sleeve, trimmed with a half Venetian sleeve, put very low down, and descending over the elbow.

*Pekin--a silk fabric in which broad stripes of equal width and in various colors or weaves are alternated.

PUBLIC PROMENADE DRESS—Blue barege robe; the corsage tight to the shape, high behind, but forming a little the V on the bosom, and trimmed with an embroidered muslin berthe. Sleeve a three-quarter length, easy but not wide; with muslin puffs let in at the elbow; under-sleeve of muslin bouillonnée. The skirt is decorated with three rows of fancy trimming; of a novel kind and a deeper shade.

*Barege—also barège. A sheer fabric of wool combined with silk, cotton, etc.
*Berthe—in English, Bertha.  A collar or covering worn over a low-necked dress.

Modern readers who want to learn more about the clothes depicted in these plates will find themselves having to read these descriptions with a fashion dictionary or two open beside them!  (The two main ones I consulted were The Fashion Dictionary: fabric, sewing and apparel as expressed in the language of fashion by Mary Brooks Picken, and The Thames and Hudson dictionary of fashion and fashion designers by Georgina O’Hara Callan.)

Plate from "Graham's Magazine" (1846)

Graham's Magazine published this plate (originally engraved for Le Follet) in 1846, but alas! they didn't print the description that must have accompanied the original plate.  That means we can only guess at the details of the garments depicted—we get the general picture, but we have no idea how they were constructed or of what materials they were made.

At first glance these dresses appear to be a study on contrasts.  The costume on the left is clearly an evening dress (probably a ball gown) while the one on the right is as clearly a day dress (possibly a visiting dress?)   The ball gown is decorated with (what I assume to be) artificial roses, and appears to be made in light, fragile materials.  The day dress appears to be made of darker, sturdier fabrics, and it is definitely more modest.  While the ball gown bares the wearer's arms and shoulders, the model in the day dress is entirely covered except for her neck and the front of her face!

A second look, however, shows us how much the two garments have in common, particularly their underlying structure and shape.  Both dresses, for example, have long pointed waists, a look achieved by the wearing of corsets that moulded the figure from armpits to hips.  (You can see the ridge created by the upper edge of the corset quite clearly on the figure on the right.)  Then there are the bell-shaped skirts, fashionable from the mid-1830s through to the mid-1850s.  At this stage the skirts weren't held out by hoops: instead they were given bulk by the many layers of petticoats worn underneath them.  One was usually made from horsehair, hence the word "crinoline"—from the French crin, meaning horsehair—later applied to the hooped petticoat that replaced it!