Petit Courrier des Dames, March 15, 1856

 Here we have an engraving of a couple of fashionable, very Victorian, outfits.  The wearers are swathed in yards of expensive and  heavily ornamented fabrics, and are covered almost entirely except for their faces.  It's clear that they can neither work nor exercise in such garments.  Their main function appears to be showing of their (husbands') wealth!

Ironically, it was the Industrial Revolution that made such retrograde fashions possible.  Mechanisation meant that fabrics could be produced in more abundance than ever before, and the mass production of hoop skirts meant that they could be sold cheaply and move from the salon to the streets in record time.  Our two well-to-do ladies would have work to do to keep ahead of the hoi polloi.  At this stage that meant wearing more of the most expensive fabrics, and hiding them beneath layers of labour-intensive decoration.

Two more important technological innovations took place in 1856.  The first was the invention of the first aniline dye, and the second was the formation of the Singer Sewing Machine Combination.  Fashion would become louder, faster, and more excessive in future decades.

 

TOILETTES DE VILLE

Chapeau orné de trois plumes sur la passe.—Robe de taffetas à deux jupes ornée d'une greque formée par trois velours.  Sur le corsage, une berthe ornée comme les jupes.  Manches formées par un gros bouillonné d'étoff, terminées par un large pagode.  Cols et manches en dentelles.

Chepeau en étoff et blonde orné de deaux plumes sur la passe, et un large nœd dont les bouts retombent sur le bavolet.  — Basquine en velours garnie le haute dentelle.— Robe en taffetas à trois volants et dispositions de velours. — Col, manchettes et mouchoir, en guipure.

[TOWN COSTUMES

Hat decorated with three feathers on the side. — Taffeta dress with two skirts decorated with a Greek key pattern made in three velvets.  On the bodice, a berthe decorated like the skirts.  Sleeves formed by a large bubble of fabric, ending in a large pagoda.  Lace collars and undersleeves.

Hat in fabric and blonde decorated with two feathers and a large bow whose ends fall on the flap. — Velvet basquine trimmed with fashionable lace. — Taffeta dress with three ruffles and velvet arrangements. — Collars, cuffs and handkerchief, in guipure.]

Peterson's Magazine, May 1875

 This week I've decided to skip back a century from the 1970s to the 1870s.  What a contrast!  The fashions of 1875 are ultra-feminine, trimmed (some would say over-trimmed) with ribbons, ruffles, lace and bows.  Skirts trail on the ground—even on garments described as "walking dress"—and hair is piled high in curls and ringlets.  (Fashionable ladies who didn't have sufficient hair of their own could buy "false hair", either sourced from poorer women or from animals.)

The models in this plate are wearing bustles, but 1875 marks the point when the "first bustle" period was coming to an end.  Bodices are starting to become longer, and will soon become form-fitting "curiass" bodices.  The effect is most pronounced on the figure on the far left.

Fig. I—Walking dress of Havana brown silk
Fig. II—House dress of green silk
Fig. III—House-dress of pale stone colored mohair
Fig. IV—Walking dress
Fig. V—House-dress

GENERAL REMARKS...

MANY LATE-PARIS DRESSES are made with but little or no trimming on the skirt; a deep basque or curiass waist, much trimmed serving for the ornament.  But the ruffled and plaited over-skirts have taken such hold of the fancy of many of the fashionables, that they will be retained, though in a somewhat modified form during summer.

ALL THE SPRING DRESSES, as we have said, show a tendency to less trimming, though the inevitable over-skirt is mostly worn in some shape, but very clinging to the figure.  For the house, some dresses with long, narrow trains, have been made.  The waist has wide revers, is rather short waisted, and, in fact, looks very much like fashions that were worn just after the French Revolution, and before the empire style, with its mongrel classic fashion, was in vogue.

Ladies' Treasury (July 1877)

Let's vist the Victorians again.  On the left we have a "HOME COSTUME of ash-grey cambric or cashmere" and on the right is a "PROMENADE TOILETTE OR HOME TOILETTE" in ancient turquoise blue valencia or cambric.  The Ladies Treasury expands:

This colour is neither blue nor green, but the precise colour of old turquoise injured by damp.  The petticoat is not very long ; and one may mention here that the ladies of highest rank wear untrained dresses when walking.

To modern eyes, "not very long" looks very long indeed!  The Ladies' Treasury continues with a description of the latest fashions, not to mention fads and fancies.  Here are a choice selection:

COLOURED CAMBRICS of almost every hue, pink excepted, and cambrics with patterns on them, also foulards are universal... These are worn principally in the morning; but where etiquette or necessity does not prescribe a more elaborate toilette, they are worn all the day till the evening.

 (I wonder why pink was so definitely out of fashion in 1877?)

POLONAISES AND TUNICS—The square form of the latter is generally adopted for tunics, as it falls upon the petticoat, and is not generally looped, but cut up at the sides, as in the coloured plate of this number.  In polonaises, which are very long, there is a tendency to a great deal of trimming, as individual tastes have to be met; but only very thin figures can wear much trimming.

(An oblique hint to the magazine's readers not to overdo it?)

Ribbon bows or rather loops, are seen in all dresses.  These ribbons are literally "two-faced", the surfaces being of different colour.  They are thus exceedingly dressy-looking.  At one time these ribbons were coldly received in England, but now they reign.  Not only are bows and loops made of this kind, but also two or three colours in ribbons are used in one knot or næud of ribbon...

200 Years Ago (Ackermann's Repository, May 1823)

 Pictured below is a:

Cloak or mantle of levantine silk, of flamme de ponche colour; at the bottom are four narrow satin rouleaus, and also round the hood, which is drawn with white satin ribbon: small square standing collar.  The cloak is lined with white sarsnet, and for cool mornings and chilly evenings will be found appropriate and comfortable.

The cloak is worn with a leghorn bonnet "with a plume of white ostrich feathers".  "Leghorn" was a type of straw grown from a particular kind of wheat in Tuscany:

Leghorn bonnets are much in favour for plain walking dress; they are also worn in the promenade, but not so generally as silk and satin.  In the first case, they are ornamented only with ribbons; in the last, with flowers or feathers.

200 Years Ago (Ackermann's repository, April 1823)

 Merriam-Webster defines "morning dress" for women as "a woman's dress suitable for wear around the home; especially: an informal dress for housework".  This dress, made of "Cyprus crepe, of a pale lavender colour" with "nine bands of of gros de Naples, bound with satin" is a far cry from that.   However the "square collar of worked muslin" and the "round cap of sprigged bobbinet" add a domestic touch to the outfit.  

Surviving morning dresses from this era appear to have used much less expensive material and be much simpler in construction.  They run more to printed cotton than crepe and satin.  One suspects that dresses like the one in this print were only ever worn by a minority of the beau monde, if at all!

In this issue, the fashion writers of Ackermann's Repository penned a few observations on the change of seasons:

The heavy garb of winter begins now rapidly to give way to the lighter attire of spring. Cloth pelisses have disappeared; velvet ones are still partially worn, but they are more generally adopted in silk.  Beaver bonnets are seldom seen; Leghorn and silk are very general.  Swans-down muffs and tippets begin to be substituted in carriage dress for ermine and chinchilla.

La Mode (March 1839)

 

Like many nineteenth century fashion plates, this one was separated from of the magazine where it was originally published.  This means it has no context.  We can hazard a guess that it was published in a French magazine and happily it has a date printed on it, but otherwise we can't know what types of outfits these ladies are wearing (morning dress? promenade dress? afternoon dress?) or what their garments are made of.  Chances were that their garments were made of silk, plain (on the left) and figured (on the right) both being favoured:

Some of the dresses are decorated with fancy trimming, others with folds... but in whatever manner the skirt is trimmed, the sleeves must always be decorated to correspond.  Silks are upon the whole the materials most in request for promenade robes, for though white muslin begins to appear, it is but slowly, and mousselines de laine though enjoying a certain vogue, are not so distingué as silk.

The New Monthly Belle Assemblee, June 1839.

The Court and Ladies' Magazine of March 1839 announces that:

The newest mousselines de laine and de soie, are striped, two, three and four colours... Striped silks and satins are likewise coming in, so that striped dresses will be de rigeur this season.

Court and Ladies' Magazine, March 1839

Nearly two centuries later, what seems most evident is the way in which the fashionable silhouette of the 1830s has almost become that of the 1840s.  Skirts are now bell-shaped and reach the ground, while the full sleeves, modish in the earlier part of the decade, have shrunk and slid down to the lower half of the arm.  The bonnets our models are wearing are not quite as small and enclosing as the "poke" bonnets of the 1840s, but they're getting there.

200 Years Ago (Ackermann's Repository, March 1823)

 

Our model from March 1823 is warmly dressed in 

A deep amethyst-colour pelisse... wadded, and lined with pink sarsnet; a little wrapt, and fastened down the front with hooks and eyes...

It was trimmed with velvet.  

A pelisse was a front-fastening, full length coat with sleeves.  As an outdoor garment its main competition was the shawl:

Our fair pedestrians now rarely envelop themselves at once in a shawl and pelisse, though the latter have lost nothing of their attraction; but they present no peculiar novelty at present.  Shawls are confined entirely to high dresses: the Angola shawls begin to decline; but those of India are as fashionable as ever.  Promenade gowns are still principally of tabinet or silk: black is much worn in the latter.

So popular were Indian shawls that an entire industry developed around making cheaper imitations.  The most notable of these were the paisley shawls manufactured in Paisley near Glasgow.   Alas for Paisley, the industry collapsed when shawls fell out of fashion in the late 1860s, though the word "paisley" is still used to describe the kind of patterns that were woven into these shawls!

200 Years Ago (Ackermann's Repository, February 1823)

 Before the middle of the twentieth century no respectable person would be seen outdoors without some kind of headgear.  This meant that hats and headdresses were as necessary to a complete outfit as shoes—and much more visible.

1. [Top left]  Bolivar hat of black velvet; the brim, narrow and equal width, is continued from the right side about the satin band of the crown, form a double front, which is finished on the left with a small gold tassel...

(Named for the South American freedom fighter Simon Bolivar, the "Bolivar hat" had a broad brim and a cylindrical crown.  While the Bolivar hat was usually worn by men, this version has been adapted for women.)

2. [Top right] Cap of tulle; the crown covered with three satin tulip leaves...

(Caps were worn indoors by married and older single women.  They performed a double function of proclaiming the wearer's status and concealing thinning and/or greying hair.)

3. [Centre] Circassian turban of silver muslin, with a bird of Paradise, beneath which is a rich ostrich feather falling very low on the left side.

(If caps were worn indoors during the day, turbans were worn with formal evening wear.)

4. [Bottom left]  Bonnet composed of Ponceau velvet...  This bonnet is very fashionable in black velvet and satin, with pomegranate-blossoms.

5. [Bottom right]  Bonnet composed of gros de Naples of two colours: the crown, which is round, and rather low, is of lemon colour; the front is of lavender colour, and very full, but confined by four flat straps, which are continued withinside...

(While hats were worn, bonnets were THE most fashionable head wear for women through most of the nineteenth century.  Like all fashions bonnet styles were in constant flux. The ones depicted here are starting to increase in size, culminating with the very LARGE bonnets worn in the late 1820s and early 1830s.)

200 Years Ago (Ackermann's Repository, January 1823)

 ... Or to give its title in full: Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics.  The "fashions" part of the journal consisted of a pair of fashion plates in each issue, along with descriptions of the plates and articles reporting on the latest fashion news from London and Paris.

To start off 1823 on a suitably festive note, we have a ball dress.

White crèpe lisse dress, worn over a bright pink satin slip; the corsage of white satin, cut bias, and fits the shape: it is ornamented with simple elegance, being separated into narrow straps, nearly two inches deep, and edged with two small folds of pink crèpe lisse set in a narrow band of folded white satin, finished with a tucker of the finest blond lace. The sleeve is short, of very full white crèpe lisse, partly concealed by two rows of white satin diamonds, edged with pink crèpe lisse, and united by half a dozen minute folds of white satin: at the botton of the dress is one row of large full puffs or bouffantes, of white crèpe lisse; between each are eight white satin loops, attached to the bouffantes, and surrounding a cluster of half-blown China roses.  The hair, without ornament, à la Grecque.  Ear-rings, necklace, armlets, and bracelets, of dead gold, with pink topazes and emeralds, interspersed, and fastened by padlock-snaps studded with emeralds. Long white kid gloves.  Pink satin shoes.

From all this verbiage I come away with a two key points.  Firstly, that the "bright pink slip" was meant to be seen under the transparent overskirt (unlike the twentieth century garments of the same name).  Secondly, that the bias cut was not invented by Vionnet in the early twentieth century, though here it is only used to make the bodice.  The engraving informs me that waists were still fairly high and skirts narrow in the early 1820s, though the use of decorations at the hem is a first step in making skirts fuller.

The Repository doesn't name a dressmaker, so I've no idea if this was an actual garment or an artist's  fantasy.   Readers of this detailed description, however, would probably have been able to use it to create a facsimile with the aid of their dressmaker—though they might have used less expensive materials!  

(The Philadelphia Museum of Art has put scans of the complete run of Ackermann's Repository up on the Internet Archive.)

Ladies' Treasury (December 1877)

 Christmas is nearly here, and once again it's time to get dressed up for parties.

At the left we have a dinner dress "of grey faille or satin... The princess form is perfectly plain in front, with the exception of the embroidery, which passes across the front, and is joined on one side with the side seam."  On the right is a "toilette for dinner or soiree in two shades of blue silk... Cuirass bodice and petticoat with train."

The Ladies' Treasury sold paper patterns for both these garments, for 3s. 7d. and 4s. 2d. respectively.  In other words, they were fairly expensive—but then again, these dresses would not have been worn by the average woman.

The Ladies Treasury also liked to keep abreast with the latest fashion news.  What was the latest gossip from Paris in December 1877?   Well it seems as if the House of Worth was making some innovations: 

"WORTH makes no more Princess robes!"  That is the greatest news of the day, and of more interest to the ladies than all the politics of the last four months.  What is the change of a Ministry, or even of a President, compared to the change of a sleeve?

The magazine hastens to reassure its readers that the Princess robe is still fashionable (in fact the dinner dress in the plate above is a fine example of the line).

I have said that the Princess robe is no longer to be worn.  This is nonsense, the robe and the Princess polonaise are still very popular, especially for walking.  Some are buttoned at the back, some in front, and some shawl-fashion, sideways, and across the figure.  There is but one rule— study your figure, and whatever best suits it adopt.  

"The Newest French Fashions" (Ladies Treasury, November 1877)

Late Victorian fashions tended to be cumbersome and over-ornamented, but by Heaven! they looked warm.

 From which the astute reader can deduce that I'm writing this on a cold winter's day.

Above is a fashion plate depicting the newest fashions of 1877.  Both models wear dresses with long trains but no bustles.  "The back breadths of dresses," The Ladies Treasury informs us, are made as flat as possible, the loopings, if any to be at the sides".  The figure on the left is dressed in French merino or cashmere:

"The bodice is in Princess form.  The wide and full train is trimmed from the waist downwards, and caught together with a broad ruching of black satin.  Cuirass paletot of double cashmere lined with flannel and silk, and in the form of three square capes, the two lowest fitting to the figure.  The trimming is of clair-de-lune or moonlight beads and fringe."

Paper patterns for the dress and jacket were available from the magazine.

The figure on the right is wearing a "Home Costume":

"of light gray Royal Wellington serge (Egerton Burnett's).  Robe of Princess form, split up the back, where a full breadth to form the train is inserted, the to split sides being drawn together with grenat cords and tassels.   The cuirass bodice is simulated [my emphasis] by narrow velvet trimming and fringe."

Patterns were not advertised for this dress.

Gentlemen of Fashion (La Mode, 1832)

 J.C. Flügel called it "the great masculine renunciation", that is, the early nineteenth century abandonment of colour and ornament in men's dress.  That's not to say that men's dress couldn't be stylish —as depicted in these fashion plates from La Mode below.

 

 

Here we have one gentleman on the left wearing an early version of the frock coat, another on the right in a double breasted tail coat.  Both were acceptable forms of daywear in the 1830s.  The man on the right wears his coat flung open to display his patterned waistcoat, also nicely framed by his wide revers.  The outfits are not yet what we'd call suits, as the coats are worn with lighter, not matching trousers.  They are accessorised with high hats, canes, and fancy neckcloths worn over high collars.

This plate depicts two gentlemen in sporting gear.  The man on the left is dressed to go shooting (complete with natty cap and hunting belt), while the gentleman on the right is ready to go riding (as shown by the riding crop he is carrying). 

At first I thought both these gentlemen were wearing dressing gowns, but then I noticed the hat on the mantelpiece, and the buttons on the garment worn by the gentleman on the left, I realised that he was wearing a form of long overcoat ("reddingote" in the French caption, from the English "riding coat").  He's clearly a man-about-town dropping in to visit his friend in the velvet dressing gown on the divan at the right.  The man on the right is also wearing some kind of cap, possibly a smoking cap used to keep the smell of tobacco from permeating the wearer's hair.

All the models have neatly trimmed and styled facial hair, an intermediate step between the clean-shaven faces of the previous generation, and the wild whiskers of the mid-Victorians!

(Images from the Bunka Gakuen University Library.)

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.

Found Online: Art - Gôut - Beauté

Art - Gôut - Beauté (Art - Taste - Beauty) was the last and the longest running of the deluxe French fashion magazines illustrated with pochoir prints.  Pochoir is a technique of  hand-coloured stencilling. The resulting prints are brilliant, but are also (by necessity) very expensive and labour intensive to produce—in limited editions only.

As a consequence, copies of AGB became collectors items as soon as they were produced, and are extremely rare and sought-after now.  Luckily for us, the California State Library has a few copies and has scanned them and put them on the Internet Archive for us to enjoy.

Lovers of 1920s fashion and/or Art Deco prints should really enjoy this selection!  The nineteen issues held by the California State Library date from 1922 to 1931 (the magazine ran from 1920 to 1933) and each page has at least one colour illustration.  Dazzling and impossibly glamorous women roam these pages, doing the rounds of high society while dressed in the latest Jazz Age creations from the Paris couturiers.  

Art - Gôut - Beauté was established by the fabrics firm d'Albert, Godde, Bedin & Co. (AGB!) to promote the French fashion industry and associated luxury trades.  It was circulated in 35 countries.  These issues are in English and were originally distributed by the City of Paris department store in San Francisco.  The Depression finally killed AGB, making a magazine full of expensive hand-made plates unviable. 

"Sylvia's Home Journal" (October 1878)

 To round off October, the fashion plate which appeared with the October 1878 issue of Sylvia's Home Journal.

Sylvia's was a British women's magazine which ran from 1878 to 1891.  At sixpence an issue it wasn't the cheapest magazine on sale—but neither was it the most expensive!  It mainly contained fashion, fiction and household advice for its middle-class readers, and interestingly, it was one of the few magazines for women actually edited by a woman.

The garments depicted are described as "Elegant Travelling Costumes" in the magazine.  The lady on the left is wearing a dress made of faille (a lightly woven silk with a ribbed texture) with a "short" train.  The woman on the right is wearing a "short costume" (that is, one without a train) made of cashmere.  The back of the costume, which we can't see, is draped in falling loops.  Finally, on the right, is a costume for a little girl aged six or seven.  Her dress has two flounces, and is worn with a matching jacket ornamented with silk cord.

"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.

Peterson's Magazine, August 1859

These are the sorts of dresses Hollywood would try to reproduce in its depictions of the antebellum South.  The key features of the styles depicted are the wide hooped skirts (at their widest in 1859), the flounces adorning skirt and mantle and the bell-shaped sleeves.  The wide skirts and sleeves made their wearers' tiny waists seem still tinier, though it should be noted that the models' proportions were exaggerated for this fashion plate— unrealistic figures being a feature of fashion illustration in the 19th century as much as today.

FIG. I. —DINNER DRESS OF PINK ORGANDY.—The skirt is trimmed with seven flounces.  Body high, with a low underlining, and round at the waist.  Over this body a cape of the material of the dress may be worn at pleasure.  A bow and ends of pink silk, trimmed with a figured ribbon, is worn at the waist.  Short sleeves composed of two ruffles.

FIG. II.—WALKING DRESS OF FRENCH SILK, IN LILAC AND WHITE STRIPES—Mantle of the same material as the dress.  Sun hat of white French lawn, trimmed with a bouquet of field flowers.

(Since the first dress is manifestly NOT pink, I can only conclude that there was some kind of mis-communication between the caption writer and the colourist!)

Peterson's Magazine, July 1878

Time for a quick trip back to the 19th century...

The artist has posed his models in a seaside setting, but none of the clothes depicted look suitable for the beach.

Fig. I. —A house dress of blue silk; the front is trimmed with three narrow knife-plaitings; the back breadths are laid in a number of narrow plaits, which are stitched-down near the bottom, and form a fan-shaped train; the over-dress of white bѐrѐge has a long plain front, edged with white blonde lace; the bѐrѐge corsage is worn over a low, blue silk corsage; it has two plaitings at the back, but the front is made as a close-fitting basque; the half sleeves are trimmed with three plaitings of the bѐrѐge.

(This definitely sounds nothing like the kind of "house dress" worn to do housework!  "Berege" (usually printed without the accents) is a light silk and wool blend.)

Fig. II—Walking-dress of cream-colored bunting; the lower-skirt is trimmed with one deep-plaited flounce, trimmed with a cardinal red and black figured braid; the long over-dress is turned up about half a yard at the bottom, in front, and is trimmed with the same braid; the long, back breadth is simply looped; deep cuirass made quite plain with half-long sleeves, and trimmed with cardinal red buttons and ribbons.  Hat of yellow straw, with long gauze veil and cardinal red flowers.  Long black lace mitts.

(The "cuirass" bodice was a long, sheath-like bodice that fitted over the hips.  It was popular from the late 1870s into the 1880s.)

Fig. III—Afternoon dress of pink silk made short; the front has three plaited ruffles, and the back is laid in straight plaits; over-dress of thin, white muslin, trimmed with wide insertion of imitation Valenciennes lace; the basque is deep, and the skirt is set on at the bottom of the basque in order to prevent the effect of the double muslin below the waist.  Scarf mantalet of the muslin, trimmed with two goffered ruffles.  Straw bonnet, trimmed with black ribbon and pink flowers.

("Made short" in this context seems to mean "without a train".  A "mantalet" was a short cape or woman's shoulder covering, usually longer in the front than in the back.)

Fig. IV—Afternoon dress of blue grenadine over blue silk or percale.  The under-dress is made quite plain in front, and has one plaited ruffle, reaching from side to side; the over-dress is very short in front, and is looped on the left side, scarf fashion; the over-dress at the back (coming from under the scarf drapery) is quite long; the mantalet and over-dress are all trimmed with knife-plaitings of grenadine, trimmed with bands of white grenadine figured in blue.  Black straw hat, trimmed with blue ribbon.

(Grenadine was a fabric made either of loosely woven silk, or a combination of wool and silk.)

Fig. V—House dress of black silk, with a light yellow, brocaded gauze over-dress; the over-dress is made polonaise, quite long, and is trimmed down the back and around the bottom with insertion and blonde lace; the deep side trimmings on the back are finished with knots of black and light yellow satin ribbon; the sleeves are of black silk, half-long, and trimmed like the skirt; long, black kid gloves.

(The late Victorians loved reviving historical fashions!  In the 18th century a "polonaise" was a skirt and bodice cut in one, with the skirts looped up at the back.  In the 1870s a polonaise was overskirt attached to a bodice, which hung strait at the front, looped up at the sides and draped at the back.)

Since women's fashions of the 1870s placed the emphasis on the back of the dress, all but one of the figures in the fashion plate above are turned away from the reader!

"Costumes Parisiens" 1830

Every once in a while fashion changes really, really fast.  The 1820s was one such decade.  It began with women wearing the high-waisted and narrow-skirted dresses that had been fashionable for nearly a quarter of a century and ended with them wearing outfits like this:

This fashion plate from 1830 illustrates the sort of lively and flamboyant clothes that were fashionable before the demure modes of the early Victorians.  The two most noticeable details of the model's costume are her exaggerated hat and her exaggerated ("leg o' mutton") sleeves.  The sleeves, of course, couldn't retain their shapes on their own.  Women would either have their sleeves lined with some heavy material such as buckram or horsehair ("crin") or would wear separate sleeve supports underneath.  Leg o' mutton sleeves would become fashionable again in the 1890s

Hats would also fall out of fashion by the end of the decade with bonnets becoming the preferred type of feminine headgear.  Hats would make a tentative comeback in the 1860s, but it wasn't until the early twentieth century that large and extravagantly decorated hats like this would become popular again.

"A Snowy Afternoon" (Peterson's Magazine, February 1878)

Although this plate is captioned "A Snowy Afternoon" it in fact depicts garments meant to be worn at different times of the day.

For those who could afford to change clothes several times a day, the general rule was the later the hour, the more formal the costume.  The outfits above would have most probably been worn for afternoon visits and evening parties.  From left to right we have a

• Walking costume of green camel's-hair
• Evening dress of primrose colored silk
• Carriage-dress of brown silk and light-gray India cashmere
• Evening dress of light-blue silk for a young lady
• Walking dress of chamois-colored camel's-hair.  

The "walking" dresses seem rather impractical, but contrary to modern expectations, they were not intended as exercise costumes.  They were fashionable outfits be seen in while promenading and paying visits!