NEW - "W.H. Wall - Penkridge" - Photograph ca. 1860
(A respectable, but not fashionable, couple from the late 1850s or early 1860s. It is interesting to compare the lady's dress with the fashion plates of the same era. It seems fairly obvious that she is either wearing fairly small hoops under her dress, or not wearing any at all. Though this photograph has faded, it is possible to see that her hair is parted smoothly in the middle under a cap - a mark of respectable matronhood in the first half of the 19th century.)
Illustrated London News, 1860
"G. A. Robinson - East Bank House, Hawick" - Cabinet photograph
ca. 1860
(The subject of this photograph appears to be middle-aged, which is probably
why her bonnet appears to be slightly old-fashioned for the late 1850s-early
1860s. However the striped material of her dress is entirely up-to-date, as
is her shawl. You can also see one of the hoops of her crinoline quite clearly
in the photograph.)
Musée des Familles, June
1861
(Hoops, or the "cage-crinoline" at its most expansive. In spite of
constant ridicule in the press the fashion remained popular among women, probably
because the hoops freed their legs under their petticoats and made their waists
look smaller in contrast with their wide skirts.)
Carte de Visite photograph, ca. 1860-1865
(The subject of this photograph is either a girl too young to wear floor-length
skirts, or - which is more likely, since her hair is "up" in adult
fashion - a young girl wearing fashionably short walking dress. Her loose jacket
and round hat, never worn with formal clothes, support this supposition. The
wide, round hoops worn under her skirts date this photograph to the first half
of the 1860s.)
Illustrated London News, 1861
Le Petit Messager, 1862
Illustrated London
News,
1862
NEW - Les Modes Parisiennes, 1862
Peterson's Magazine, August 1863
"On the Thursday evening, Belle shut herself up with her maid, and between them they turned Meg into a fine lady. They crimped and curled her hair, they polished her neck and arms with some fragrant powder, touched her lips with coralline salve to make them redder, and Hortense would have added "a soupcoçon of rouge" if Meg had not rebelled. They laced her into a sky-blue dress, which was so tight she could hardly breathe, and so low in the neck that modest Meg blushed at herself in the mirror. A set of silver filagree was added, bracelets, necklace, broach, and even earrings, for Hortense tied them on with a bit of pink silk which did not show. A cluster of tea-rose buds at the bosom and a ruche, reconciled Meg to the display of her pretty white shoulders, and a pair of high-heeled blue silk boots satisfied the last wish of her heart. A lace handkerchief, a plumy fan, and a bouquet in a silver holder finished her off, and Miss Belle surveyed her with the satisfaction of a little girl with a newly dressed doll."
Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Journal des Jeunes Personnes, 1863
Illustrated London News, 1863
"A. & G. Taylor, Photographer
to the Queen" [Glasgow] - Cabinet photograph, ca. 1863
(This lady wears clothing which was fashionable during the first half of
the 1860s. The back of the photograph declares that A. & G. Taylor were
"Photographers by special Royal Warrant to ... Their Royal Highnesses The
Prince & Princess of Wales" putting this picture at 1863 at the earliest.)
Journal Des Jeunes Personnes, December 1864
"C. Hawkins, Brighton School of Photography" - Carte de Visite, ca. 1865
(C. Hawkins moved to the address on the back of this card in 1865, and the clothes this lady is wearing cannot be placed much later than that. The dark bands of material decorating the hem of her skirt were a fashionable touch of the time.)
"Thomas Mann & Co., Hastings", Carte de Visite ca. 1865
(The crinoline has almost, but not quite disappeared in this photograph.
The bulk of the skirt is starting to move to the back, and the excess material
is trailing on the floor.) \
Carte de visite, ca. 1865-1866
( This relatively simple, but stylish, white dress is set-off by black lace covering the shoulders. Black and white were a fashionable combination in the 1860s.)
Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, September 1866
Illustrated London News, 1866
Woodcuts from Peterson's Magazine, 1867
"C. Nettleton, North Melbourne" - Carte de Visite, ca. 1868-1869
(According to the back of this card, the photographer won a prize in Melbourne in 1867. He is probably the same Charles Nettleton who took a series of views of the city in the late 1860s and early 1870s. The sitter for this photograph wears neither hoops nor bustle, making her costume fairly simple for its time.)
La Mode Illustrée,
1868
"The girl of the period is a creature who dyes her hair and paints her face, as the first article of her personal religion; whose sole idea of life is plenty of fun and luxury; and whose dress is the object of such thought and intellect as she possesses. Her main endeavour in this is to outvie her neighbours in the extravagance of fashion... Nothing is too extraordinary and nothing is too exaggerated for her vitiated taste; and things which in themselves would be useful reforms if let alone become monstrosities worse than those which they have displaced as soon as she begins to manipulate and improve. If a sensible fashion lifts the gown out of the mud, she raises hers midway to the knee. If the absurd structure of wire and buckram, once called a bonnet, is modified to something that shall protect the wearer's face without putting out the eyes of her companion, she cuts hers down to four straws and a rosebud, or a tag of lace and a bunch of glass beads... If some fashionable dévergondée en evidence is reported to have come out with her dress below her shoulder-blades, and a gold strap for all the sleeve thought necessary, the girl of the period follows suit next day; and then wonders that men sometimes mistake her for her prototype, or that mothers of girls not quite so far gone as herself refuse her as a companion for their daughters..."
(Eliza Lynn Linton, "The Girl of the Period"
from The Saturday Review, March 14, 1868)
La Mode Illustrée,
1869
(Including riding habits and bathing costumes in the bottom
row.)
Photo ca. 1868-1869
(The bustle has almost, but not quite, arrived. The skirt falls straight, while
the emphasis has moved to the back. I wonder what colour this dress was? While
we can't tell from a black and white photograph, chances are that it was one
of the fashionable new purple shades.)
