All posts tagged: 1850s

1850s? Or 18th century? Or…?

I found these images of a fascinating pair of stays ex. Brooklyn Museum that were sold through Augusta Auctions. The catalogue describes them as: Bavarian Silk Stays, 1840-1860. Pink satin, white leather waist tabs, attached metallic lace stomacher, multiple layers stiffened w/ baleen stays, homespun linen lining, B 30″, CFL 13″, (satin & metallic lace worn, linen lining replaced, leather dirty) fair. Brooklyn Museum Now, I know that the regional peasant attire in many places stayed decades behind the current trends, but these look very 18th century to me. There is some obvious mistakes in the dressing: they are clearly meant to be spiral laced, and have been cross-laced instead, which just isn’t working, indicating that at least some of the people involved with documenting the stays didn’t know what they were doing. Does that include the person who dated them and wrote the description? So what do you think, oh gurus of 18th century and European peasant wear? Are these a localised throwback to earlier styles and construction techniques, or mislabeled?

More terminology: What is a pardessus?

Published by The Dreamstress

Continuing on from my post about guimpes, I’ve been noticing all sorts of costuming words that I see, and can guess what they mean, but never properly research. My latest word is pardessus. V&E posted a gorgeous 1874 pardessus pattern that started my research. Pardessus, unglamorously enough, just means ‘overcoat’, from the French ‘passed over’. We can see the term, or variants of it, used in early French fashion magazines. The notes for this fashion magazine from 1814 described the garments as 1. Robe de Levantine et fichu-canezou garni en broderie. Chapeau en Gros de Naples garni dune ruche de gaze. 2. Canezou de velours. Jape de reps garnie en rouleaux. Chapeau en velours epingle garni de plumes d’Autruche. 3. Par-dessus four-6 en merinos garni de chinchilla. Toque de velours plein garni de roses. The term pardessus gained popularity in English in the 1840s as a term to describe a mantle, along with pelisses, paletots, camails, and crespins. Mentions of pardessus are most common in English fashion magazines in the ’40s & ’50s, and American …

Rate the Dress: Ecru, black and gold in the 1850s

Published by The Dreamstress

I was expecting that last week’s JP Worth dress might not be the most popular garment ever with you, dear readers, but I certainly didn’t anticipate the level of loathing and revulsion in your reaction! Everything came under fire at some point or another: the lace (old rugby socks), the silhouette (matronly and frumpy), the colours (Halloween-y and clashing), but most of all the bows! Only two of you actually liked it, and even those two thought it needed improving. Poor JP’s creation received the lowest rating ever: a 3.3 out of 10. And that’s not even counting the three people who tried to rate it a 0 out of 10 (I moved their rating up to one, because zero is not a number, and it’s not on the rating scale). On the bright side, the unfortunate frock did spark the most entertaining comment thread ever! On reviewing my ‘Rate the Dress’ selections, I realised I have rather ignored the 1850s. I suspect it is because most 1850s dresses look like most other 1850s …