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.
