Fashion History

Trending For March 1895- Waists

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In this post, we move forward a few years to 1895 to take a look at some of the latest fashion trends that were now in full flower.  One of the most noteworthy trends was the waist and skirt combination. As noted in the March 1895 issue of Demorest’s Family Magazine,

The most important feature in woman’s dress now is the convenient separate skirt with its variety of plain or fancy waists, with which its owner can adapt it for almost any social function. A skirt of black moire, satin, or crépon, and one of white satin, with half a dozen corsages [bodices], high and low, are the most useful gowns a woman can have for a short visit to gay social centers during the season.

All the ingenuity which was formerly expended on the whole gown is now lavished on the corsage; and while the main features—greatly expanded sleeves and drooping blouse front—are similar in all, the skillful modistes yet contrive to make no two alike. They have the advantage of fabrics and trimmings which were never before approached in beauty. There are silk crêpes and crépons in every conceivable weave and in all evening shades, at prices that bring them within the reach of all; and they are much to be preferred to chiffon unless it is accordion-plaited.

The plaited chiffon waists are extremely chic, and must remain exclusive because of their cost; but the puffed ones do not approach
them in elegance, and are fragile in the extreme, even looking mussed in the shops, before they are worn. Some of the handsomest waists are of white or pale-tinted satin or silk, veiled with jetted or spangled black lace. Worn with black or colored skirts they are suitable for the theater or receptions.

As indicated above, the waist and skirt combination offered added flexibility in wardrobes that hadn’t previously existed while giving full scope to creativity in terms of fabric and trim choices as well as construction details. In short, the waist could be as plain or as elaborate as the wearer desired.  To better visualize the possibilities, the same issue of Demorest’s provides us with some illustrations of waist patterns which Demorest’s offered for sale:

No. 4, The Theater Waist, is especially interesting in its construction:

…velvet, white or cream lace, and mousseline de soie of any light.becoming color. The back is entirely of velvet, and the lace is carried entirely around the arm holes.

The velvet back is not something one would normally associated with a waist and it could be argued that this was more of a transitional garment that offered the convenience of a waist while having more substance found in bodices. This may be an exception but it still introduces an interesting idea, especially when the waist/skirt combination was being touted as an alternative outfit suitable for wear at a variety of social occasions.

How elaborate could a waist get? Well, pretty elaborate as demonstrated by this pattern offered for sale in the April 1894 issue of the The Deliminator:


And the waist itself:


In the pattern description for the above waist, it’s noted that a variety of fabrics can be utilized to include “all varieties of fancy plaid and changeable silks, woolens of any description, and such fashionable cottons such as gingham, percale, chambray, and crépon.” To us, this garment is bordering on an unstructured bodice (the structure, no doubt, supplied by the corset) and while it may be a matter of semantics, there’s definitely been a blurring of clothing definitions.

It would appear that the characterization of the waist as being a simple blouse-like garment is not the case but instead, was much more refined garment that often mimicked the bodice and as such was considered a complete upper garment in its own right, acceptable wear for a variety of social occasions. Also, while more simple waists were worn in combination with a short jacket, it would also appear that many of the more elaborate waists were worn as outerwear in their own right (although a coat no doubt would have been worn in colder weather).

Unfortunately, we have been unable to locate any extant waists of the elaborate type so the search will have to continue but clearly these garments were work- it’s doubtful that the trouble and expense of creating and printing the necessary patterns would have been undertaken if this hadn’t been the case. In the end, the idea of the waist as a near-bodice is a thought-provoking one and bears more study.

Directoire Style Returns…

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One of the more interesting micro fashion trends that were occurring during the late 1880s/early 1890s was the revival of Directoire style. Originally a reaction to the overly-ornate aristocratic fashions of the late Eighteenth Century, the Directoire aesthetic focused on simplifying fashion, initially drawing upon Classical antiquity for inspiration. As with the original, the Directoire style of the 1880s/1890s was a reaction to the highly structured styles of the late 1880s and it also sought to introduce a less structured style (although this was a matter of degree). So what was this style, as reinterpreted? According to the January 1889 issue of Peterson’s Magazine:

In gowns, the Empire and Directoire styles are the novelties. The Empire gowns have a simple basque back, while the front is rounded and quite short, being covered from tho armpits with the draped Empire belt. The belt is of the dress-material, or one of its combinations. The back of such basque is in box-plaits. The skirts of both the Empire and Directoire gowns are all in straight lines, owning over an underskirt, in front, the whole length. Rich brocades, combined with satin peau-de-soie, are mostly used for dressy occasions.

Gowns for the street are made in the same style in cloth. The long continuous breadths of the redingote are well adapted for these cloth costumes. One of tho novelties of the season is for combining black with a contrasting color. The short broad revers on the front of the bodice, in Directoire gowns, are generally of the same color as the
front of the gown. All sleeves are full; that is, either puffed, for lace or dinner dresses, and for cloth, silk, or woolens. The coat-sleeve is large at the top, and pushed up at the armhole.

What’s interesting in the above commentary is that there’s an emphasis on straight vertical lines. Jackets were definitely a key element, principally with revers in bodices combined with tight sleeves with large sleeve caps. Let’s see how this is looks…

Directore

Directoire

As it can be seen from the above illustrations, jackets were a definite style element, and were either short jackets or, in some cases, cut-away versions. The Redingote was often blended in and it was sometimes difficult to tell where outerwear ended and inside dresses began:

The above style was available from Butterick’s as a sewing pattern.

The late 1880s take on the Directoire style is an interesting in that it emphasized the skirt and jacket/coat combination and that a tidy silhouette while at the same time avoiding the severity found with a closely-fitted bodice. Also, with the skirt, we see a de-emphasis on the train, the elaborate bustle structure that was in style just a couple of years before; at best there was a minimal bustle mostly consisting of some sort of pad. When viewed across several decades, this represented a seismic style shift that was to ultimately play out through the 1890s. We hope you have enjoyed this little excursion into one of the more little-known byways of late Nineteenth Century fashion and we hope to be posting more soon. 🙂

Trending For January 1890- The Leg Of Mutton Sleeve

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Sleeves are a major style element on every garment and was given special emphasis during the 1890s with its signature leg of mutton sleeves which grew to fantastical proportions by mid-decade. But as with all fashion trends that go to extremes, their origins are more modest and that was the case when it came to sleeve style. Here’s an illustration that from the January 1890 edition of Peterson’s Magazine:

This illustration was part of a sleeve pattern that was included in the January issue but unfortunately it’s not available as part of the electronic file (perhaps one day we’ll be able to locate an original issue of the magazine itself and scan an electronic version). What’s interesting here is that it’s got a gathered sleeve cap but definitely nothing extreme. Just to provide some context, here’s a few fashion plates:

Godey’s Fashions, September 1890

Peterson’s Magazine, February 1890

Fashion Plate, Winter 1890

Now fashion plates can be a bit deceptive in that they portray the ideal concept but they’re a good starting point. Let’s now look at some extant dresses…

Day Dress, c. 1888 – 1890; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (60.897a-b)

The sleeves in the above day dress are towards the fuller side and there’s a gradual tapering towards the wrists. Here’s another example:

Reception Dress, c. 1890; Goldstein Museum of Design (2013.004.012)

The small sampling shown above only gives a hint of the shift in styles that was happening during these years. Stay tuned for more in future posts. 🙂

 

Parisian Fashions- Trending For Spring 1890

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Fabrics are a major part of fashion and often are the center of focus of a dress design. In terms of style, a fabric could be said to consist of three elements: 1) the fabric’s specific type and construction; 2) the fabric’s decoration (i.e. does the fabric have some sort of decorative motif or is it plain?); and 3) the fabric’s color. This is illustrated in this commentary from the April 1890 issue of Peterson’s Magazine:

In the way of dress materials, the newest is a gauze with wide woven stripes in a fabric much more transparent than the ground of the material, these stripes being figured in large patterned designs in the thicker stuff. The effect thus produced is very pretty, and, when the gauze is made up over a colored satin underskirt, the toilette thus composed will be charming.

As for silks, brocades were definitely a thing:

The newest silks are brocades, having very small sprays of flowers in their natural colors scattered over a black ground. Some of the designs are very tasteful as well as novel, and especially one representing a single stalk of the fuchsia with its pendent blossoms, and another showing one of the crimson clover. These floral designs are repeated on the foulards of the season- snowdrops or ears of wheat being represented on the black grounds, and fuchsias on cream-white or pale silver-gray.

Here are some fashion plates from Peterson’s that help illustrate this a little:

Peterson’s Magazine, March 1890

Peterson’s Magazine, May 1890

And here are some extant examples of garments that incorporate one or more style elements noted above:

Worth, Ballgown, 1889; Metropolitan Museum of Art (C.I.68.53.11a, b)

Sara Mayer & A. Morhanger, Da Dress, c. 1889-1892; Victoria & Albert Museum (T.270&A-1972)

Worth, Dinner Dress, c. 1890-1895; Metropolitan Museum of Art (2009.300.636a, b)

The above examples are only a small sample but they serve to underscore some of the fashion trends that were underway during the later 1880s/early 1890s. In future posts, we hope to further document this most interesting period of fashion transition.

Parisian Color Trends For Fall 1889

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Color is a major element in fashion styles and, as with style in general, it’s constantly in a state of flux. The situation was no different during the Nineteenth Century and while there was no entity like Pantone to constantly monitor the color trends, they were still noted. In the October 1889 issue of Peterson’s Magazine, it was noted that:

The newest color of the season is a rich deep shade of chaudron-red, which has been christened Eiffel-color, after the famous tower of the Exhibition. It is supposed to be of the same hue as the red-painted iron-work of that stupendous edifice, since its tint has been mellowed and modified by the weather. Green, except in the dark-emerald shade, has gone entirely out of vogue. Yellow, in the warm golden tones, will be a good deal used for trimmings,

Probably the most interesting comment is about “chaudron-red” which is a mash-up of French and English for “cauldron red” (or Eiffel Red) and it describes the original color that the Eiffel Tower was painted when it was first erected for the Paris Exhibition of 1889. The original paint was meant as a protective coating and had a copper-red color because of its active ingredient, iron oxide, which gives the paint its protective quality, preventing rust to the steel that made up the Eiffel Tower’s construction (even to this day, iron oxide paint is used for treating steel beams). So what did this look like? Probably something like this:

Interestingly enough, recently, when it’s time to repaint the Eiffel Tower in 2021, it has been suggested that it be repainted in the original chaudron-red, similar to the shade depicted above. So far, the French Ministry of Culture has not made a decision…

Besides “Eiffel Red,” it’s noted that green is completely out except in a dark emerald shade, perhaps along these lines:

And for yellow something like these:

And now well things together with some examples of the above colors at work, starting with this evening dress from Maison Worth:

Worth, Evening Dress, c. 1889; Metropolitan Museum of Art (C.I.59.20)

James McCreary & Co., Visiting Dress, c. 1889; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Detail of Cuff

Both of the above dress examples incorporate many of the colors noted in Peterson’s although we must note that there are also plenty of examples where other colors were used; in fashion there’s never any absolutes, just broad generalizations. We hoped you have enjoyed this brief excursion into trending colors of 1889 and stay tuned for more in the future. 🙂