The Dreamstress

The bodice of the current Rate the Dress has caused some commentary.  What’s with the fitted back and loose front?  What’s with those tassel-y things?  Is it an indoor or outdoor garment?  And most of all, what’s with those sleeves?

Let’s dig into this peculiar garment.  It’s called a dolman.  If a tea gown is the most elegant possible variation of a bathrobe, a dolman is the most elegant possible variation of a poncho.

What is a dolman?

A dolman was a coat-cape hybrid fashionable from the 1860s to the 1880s. The defining feature of the dolman is the wide cape-sleeves which are sewn into the side seams of the jacket at front and back, and the loose fit of the front of the jacket, even as the back sits snuggly against the waist, highlighting the shape of the bustle. ⁠ ⁠

Dolman Origins:

Dolmans had their origins in two of Western fashions favourite sources of inspiration: the military, and the ‘Orient’ (in this case, Turkey & the Ottoman Empire).

Dolmans came to Europe via the Hussars: light cavalry from Hungary and other countries bordering the Ottoman Empire.  They were known for their uniforms of tightly fitted, heavily decorated jackets, with loose pelisse-over-jackets thrown across the shoulders.

The Hussars, in their turn, had adapted their uniform from garments worn in Ottoman Empire: loose over-jackets heavily trimmed with horizontal braiding and tassels, and squared brimless hats with sprays of feathers.

For the Ottomans, the loose outer jacket was the dolaman.

Hussars acquired a reputation for being especially courageous and dashing, adding cachet to the term and the uniform.  The word, the idea, and the uniform of Hussars was borrowed by countries across Europe (and even further abroad) in the 18th and early 19th century, until almost every army had some version of its own light cavalry with a uniform that included a hanging over-jacket.

With the Hussar uniform so widespread, and the Hussars romantic reputation, it was inevitable that elements of their uniform ended up in fashionable dress.  The shako hat horizontal trim, and pelisse as an outer garment became part of fashionable dress in the first decades of the 19th century.  In the 1860s it was the dolmans turn.

Well, kind of.  For the Hussar, the dolman was the fitted jacket – the element that linked it to the Ottoman original was the horizontal braid.  The loose outer jacket was the pelisse.

The Dolman in European fashion:

When women began wearing dolmans in the 1860s, they were inspired by the loose over-jacket, and so a dolman became a mantle with very wide, almost cape-like sleeves attached to the body all the way down.  This may have been because there was general confusion over which part of the costume was the dolman: this 1864 news article (warning, racism, quote about dolman is at the very end of the article) is definitely under the impression that it is the hanging part.

The earliest fashion plates and fashion articles I can find about dolmans are from the early 1870.  Some imply that the dolman was well established “The Dolman cloak – always comfortable and becoming – is in favour, and the prevailing colours are bottle green, cronza, marine blue…“, or mention “The dolman form of mantelet with wide pointed sleeves or imitation sleeves will still be seen – of course made in silks or other thin materials”.  Other advertisements from the same year describe it as new, suggesting that the dolman only became widespread in the very late 1860s.

Early dolmans almost look like sleeved versions of burnous (read the terminology post about them here):

Both were loose, and frequently featured elaborate tassel and fringe trim.  It’s a classic example of different styles blurring together, particularly when they both came from sources considered ‘exotic’ in Europe.

In another crossover of Eastern-fashion-in-Western-Dress, dolmans were frequently made from Kashmiri shawls, turning the now-unfashionable unfitted squares into a new garment which took advantage of their warmth and colours while sporting a silhouette that was much more a la modé.

Not everyone was a fan of dolmans.  An 1877 fashion article includes a man’s impression of a dolman

“A sort of a cross between the ancient’s long double-barrelled basque, with pointed haversack, and the Martha Washington nightgown, cut goring and elaborate trimmed with old style ball fringe.  It gives a careless air to the figure, about as pleasing as might be formed by drawing a meal-bag on a pump.”

Ouch.

As bustles became more fashionable, dolman became more fitted and tailored at the back, to show off the increasingly prominent posterior.

They also lengthened at the front, to lengthen the front silhouette, and provide visual interest.  The loose almost-cape shape became more tailored, with the sleeves becoming smaller at the cuffs, rather than having a wide pagoda shape.

The dolman did retain its essential cape-like feature of sleeves attached to the body from shoulder to waist, which, combined with the narrower cuffs, resulted in a coat-cape hybrid that significantly restricted the wearer’s movements.  Fine for a wealthy lady of leisure who could expect maids and footmen to fulfil her every whim, not so much for anyone needing to do anything practical!

As well as being a cross between a coat and a cape, dolmans were a cross between an indoor and outdoor garment.

They were frequently made from lush, expensive indoor fabrics, like the example above, but their cut signified that the wearer was moving from indoors to out and back again, and did not intend to settle indoors. This made them ideal for ‘visiting’ costume, when a society lady would visit each of her friends in turn, leaving a card or staying for a brief cup of tea before moving on.⁠

And that’s what the dolman that started this whole post was for!  It’s just exciting and interesting because it has a matching skirt, so is a full ensemble:

Dolmans became less fashionable as the bustle fell out of fashion at the beginning of the 1890s, and all but disappeared with the extraordinarily full sleeves of 1894-96.

There are scattered examples of dolman inspired garments throughout the 1910s and 20s:

Dolman-inspired items re-entered fashion in a big way in the 1930s, and stayed there throughout the 40s and 50s, when designers like Vionnet and Claire McCardell used dolman sleeves: sleeves cut in one with the body, very wide where they join the body of the garment, and tapering to be fitted at the cuffs.

Sources:

Johnston, Lucy.  Nineteenth-Century Fashion in Detail.  London: V&A Publishig, 2005

O’Hara, Georgina,  The Encyclopedia of Fashion: From 1840 to the 1980s.  London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.  1986