If it’s fringed, shirred and pleated…you know it’s on my workload list! Can anyone figure out why we don’t wear clothes like this now? Aside from the ideas that modern clothes are cozy and that fashion evolves, that’s fine…but certainly not as interesting.
Godey’s Lady’s Book, December 1875 fashion plates
Two-tone dresses were a major element in early to mid-1870s fashion and is one of the major factors that set 1870s style apart from 1880s style (apart from the changes in bustle configuration). A “two-tone” dress was essentially one that combined two major colors to achieve the fashion effect; often these were contrasting colors but they also could be more harmonious color combinations.
When we discuss color combinations, they can either be complementary colors or analogous colors as illustrated here:
As a rule, complementary colors provide the greatest visual impact but neutral colors such as black and gray can also perform the same role. Let’s take a look at some examples:
Day Dress, c. 1868-1872; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.82.272.1a-b)
The color combination on the above dress a harmonious combination of dark red/burgundy and a dark gold/yellow or old gold, both which are warm colors.
Day Dress, c. 1873; McCord Museum (M20277.1-2)
The above color contrast uses a combination of complementary colors- a blue-green and very light red orange. What is interesting is that the red-orange color is further broken up with with blue-green stripes.
Worth, Afternoon Dress, c. 1874; Metropolitan Museum of Art (1975.259.2a, b)
The color combination on the above dress is interesting in that it’s a combination of dark blue and celadon which are analogous colors. The next two dresses feature the use of monochromatic color combinations:
Day Dress, c. 1870; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (64.1003a)
In the above example, we see the use of very dark purple combined with a more medium shade. It also should be noted that the fabrics can also be used to enhance the effect: The dark purple is on a rich velvet while the lighter purple shade is on what appears to be a taffeta. Also it must be noted that the knife pleating running along the bottom of the skirt is a third shade of purple. Here’s another example that uses lavender:
Day Dress, c. 1868-1872; Kent State University Museum (KSUM 1983.1.118a-d)
The dress features a monochromatic color combination of darker and lighter shades of lavender. Note how the contrast colors run vertical for the bodice and horizontal for the skirt. The above examples are only a small hint at the combinations that were possible with early to mid 1870s dresses and as we find some more examples, we’ll be sure to post them here.
Textiles are a major element in any fashion style and a good designer will always seek to utilize the right fabric so that a specific style looks its best. For Charles Worth, fabrics played a major role in the design process to the point where he would commission textile manufacturers to create textiles for his exclusive use. Drawing on his background as a draper, Worth created relationships with a number of textile manufacturers, most notably the silk weavers of Lyon, France.
Worth’s opinion of the role of textiles was neatly summarized in an interview quoted in the March 24, 1896 edition of the Los Angeles Herald:
When a manufacturer invents any special fabric or design, he sends me a pattern asking if I can use it. The fabric may require a severe style of dress, or if light and soft it is adapted for draperies and puffings. If the material pleases me, I order a large quantity to be made specially for me, and design my dresses accordingly. A purchase by a large firm of a great quantity of material influences other firms, and that material, with the style it is suited to, becomes the fashion. All my models are first made in black and white muslin, then copied in the material and coloring which I select.
Worth notes that with enough yardage and the right design, one can create a popular fashion. Also, Worth notes that the textile manufacturer would come to him in the hopes of an order. However, knowing Worth’s tendency to commission custom fabrics, it was a two-way process in that Worth’s designs often drove textile development. In future posts we’ll be covering this in more detail but it’s interesting to hear from one of the leading designers of the day.
Wearing black wasn’t just for Mourning, it was considered an elegant color for fancy wear or even a wedding…a “best” dress. The dyes of the 19th century were often (but not always) “weighted” with lead, arsenic, and other lovely chemicals and metals…mostly for the purpose of keeping the color intact.
This lovely late 1890s bodice was obviously a favorite, there’s some wear, a self-fabric patch, and only the lace is a bit brownish and faded. Styles like this were common and sometimes were worn with different skirts for a bit of variety. Printed and colored linings were popular as well, sometimes “that’s all they had” or “pretty on the inside”. This one is heavily boned with baleen (what they called “whalebone”) and even though it was stiffened, a woman would have still worn this over a boned corset. Just a sweet example of What She Wore.
Inspiration often comes from unexpected sources and this post is one of those…Recently, we came across some pictures featuring an circa early 1950s evening dress designed by a one Fred Perlberg that was featured on the Augusta Auctions website. While this dress seemingly has nothing to do with late 19th Century fashion, it does illustrate an interesting point in regard to the use of color in fashion design and especially when applied to the 1870s and 1880s: specifically, monochromatic colors were used in combination with each other. Essentially, monochromatic colors involved the use of tints, shades and tones of one color and in this case, green, as illustrated below:
In this example, we see an incredibly rich dark green combined with a much lighter shade of green- basically a tint where white has been added to the dark green. On a practical level, this is probably the easiest way to create an interesting dress design. Below is an example of an 1880s day dress that we made, using a similar color scheme:
In this example, we’ve used three distinct tints of blue:
The Perlberg dress is a fairly simple example but it gets the idea across very directly. Here’s another example depicted with the first and fourth figures in this December 1880 fashion plate from Godey’s Magazine:
Finally, here’s a little more complex example with this mid to late 1880s day dress:
Day Dress, c. 1883 – 1889; Goldstein Museum of Design (1963.007.002a-b)
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this tiny exploration in the use of monochromatic colors as a design tool in fashion. Stay tuned for more!