This 1840s day dress is made from a wool gauze with a striking large-scale stripe pattern in blue and beige. The stripes are used to striking effect on the bodice, with the bold pattern skillfully pleated in to the waist…
The dress also features decorations based on another form of ‘pink’. Zig-zagged and scalloped cutwork is called pinking. It combines a Medieval word meaning to punch or prick, with ‘pink’: just like the frilled petals of the dianthus family which also named the colour. These days we use the word in this form in ‘pinking sheers’.
This day dress, with its sloped shoulders, berthe-effect pleated front, mancheron oversleeves, pointed waist, and cartridge-pleated bell-shaped skirt, is a classic example of mid-late 1840s style
