#1850s fashion

[historical-fashion-polls]

submitted by @edwardian-girl-next-door 🤍💙

[paletapessoal]

Shawl, early 1850s, black Chantilly lace backed in sage green silk crepe

[frostedmagnolias]

Evening dress

maker unknown

c. 1859-1860

Glasgow Museums

[daguerreotyping]

Stereoview of a hussar and his sweetheart, or perhaps ex-sweetheart, c. 1850s

[antiquebee]

1854

From 'The Royal Collection Trust'

[isabelle-primrose]

The Princess Royal's fan, 1856

Painted by the Princess Royal as a birthday gift for Queen Victoria

[clusterfrock]

This project is finally finished! I started this dress back in July '24, thinking that I had plenty of time to finish it before my trip to Dickens on the Strand in December. Of course, I grossly underestimated my ability to get distracted, so I was, as is tradition, finishing this dress up in the hotel room the first night of the event. But hey, at least it was finished!

Things started with the skirt, which was based off several designs I kept seeing in 1850s fashion plates that have tiered skirts with ruffles on them. I had always slated that amazing plaid fabric for something mid-Victorian, and the ruffles seemed like a good way to accent such a busy fabric, and to help keep fabric usage down, as I only had 9 yards of the plaid.

The ruffles were attached to a plain black panel, which was then attached to a plaid panel, which was gathered onto the skirt base, which was also made of plain black taffeta.

I hadn't decided on a bodice design when I first started, and when it came time to make it I was definitely in a time crunch, so it's pretty much a straight make of Truly Victorian's TV440. The front closes with hooks and thread bars, but I ended up making it slightly too small, which led to gapping over the bust. I didn't have time to fully address this before the event, so I made a fichu in black taffeta that I could wear to cover it.

To make the fishu, I traced the back bodice pattern onto the fabric, then just drew in the tails in chalk. I mocked it up in cotton first, and then cut it out in taffeta. If I were to do it again, I would remember to put the taffeta on the bias so it would stretch over my bust correctly. The taffeta was also super slippery on top of the bodice, which was also taffeta, so even though I intended to wear it like a sontag, as seen above, I ended up wearing it with the tails down in front.

The undersleeves were finished in the hotel room just before my first event. You can't really see them in any of the pictures, but they definitely helped make the outfit feel complete, and I didn't have my naked forearms flapping around for all the world to see!

There's a much more in-depth writeup on my main costuming blog, including a lot of skirt math!

[la-belle-histoire]

Victoria, Princess Royal. Unknown artist. 1856.

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

~ Franz Ebyl, Woman in a Pink Dress (1850) (detail)

via belvedere museum vienna

[fashion-from-the-past]

1855

[peggy-elise]

Eleanor Parker in The Woman In White 1948 🌬

[historical-fashion-polls]

submitted by @edwardian-girl-next-door 🩵🖤

[paletapessoal]

Evening dress, red silk and black rose brocade , 1850s.

[frostedmagnolias]

Evening dress made of silk

c. 1850-1855

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[daguerreotyping]

Absolutely stunning post-mortem daguerreotype of a young man with killer cheekbones and haunting eyes, c. 1850

[antiquebee]

The World of Fashion, February 1851