With our upcoming trip to Sweden in September, we decided to dig a little into the Sweden’s fashion history as it relates to the late 19th Century and we found some interesting fashion plates from a Swedish fashion magazine entitled Freja. Unfortunately, we don’t know anything about the publication but the fashion plates were compelling and so we had to share them. 🙂 First up in the spirit of the summer season is these two plates:

The styles depicted in these plates are fairly standard for the period but are still compelling in that each has a fairly similar silhouette yet each one has an individual style. In the first plate from August 1885, the figure on the left’s dress is a solid color with matching hat with the skirt having multiple layers of ruching and ruffles. The sleeves and bodice front are a bit over the top with all the excess lace and overall the dress reads a bit too formal for the seaside. The dress on the right presents a contrast with a printed floral design combined with a solid color ruched pseudo-waist/vest underneath the bodice front. The color combination presents a harmonious combination (allowing for the fact that this is a colored fashion plate). Finally, the dress on the right presents a unified whole with clean lines and minimal trim.

In this plate from August 1886, we  see two more different styles in which the waist is far more minimized than in the first plate. The dress on the left creates the illusion of a closed robe with white lace providing a contrast layers that outlines the rest of the dress. The garment is drawn in at the waist with a belt and gives an illusion of a continuous garment although it’s obvious that the bodice and skirt are separate (of course, we could be wrong, considering that we’re looking at a photograph of the place). The use of contrasting white lace flounces provides an interesting effect that outlines the garment and draws the eye in.

The dress on the right provides a different style approach with the use of a solid color combined with a thin material (probably some variety of a light cotton voile or similar over a heavier cotton underlayer (cotton seems the logical choice). The folds of the lighter outerlayer creates the effect of a loose-fitting garment although it’s obvious that there’s a corset and bustle on underneath. Perhaps a nod towards aesthetic dress? 🙂 If nothing else, it certainly gives off a princess line appearance. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to the commentary that accompanied these places so a lot of our comments are based on a bit of conjecture.

The two dresses depicted in the above plate from February 1885 are more of what could be termed reception or visiting dresses and were meant for more indoors wear. The dress on the left is an interesting combination of a silk brocade underskirt combined with a solid silk overskirt, all in the same gold colors with a bit of white lace running long the front to provide contrast. The black velvet (conjecture on our part) bodice offers an interesting color counterpoint to the skirts. Thin strips of gold brocade fabric running on each edge of the bodice front provides a continuation of the skirts, drawing the eye upwards with a pseudo-waist of white lace for contrast.

Compared to the left dress, the right dress provides a light and airy contrast with its white lace underskirt, apron, and inner bodice combined with a rich red velvet-like outerskirt and bodice. It’s a visual one-two punch that definitely attracts the eye. 🙂

In this last plate from December 1884, we see a combination of afternoon/visiting dresses done in a combination of solid color velvet combined with velvet brocade. The dress on the right provides the best view with a velvet brocade underskirt combined with a solid-colored overskirt trimmed in fur. The bodice presents a dramatic appearance with a plastron of the same velvet brocade as the underskirt combined with solid-colored sleeves. This dress gives an effect of a robe being worn on the outside although it’s obvious that the bodice and skirts are separate. The above is just a taste of what was in style for Sweden during the mid-1880s and in future posts we hope to uncover more.