A walking dress was a trainless dress that one could walk in without any part of the dress touching the ground.  In an era dominated by horse-drawn vehicles (among other less salubrious refuse that might end up on the streets), the resulting debris picked up by long, trained skirts could be rather foul, and it’s not surprising that the elaborate trains of the 1870s and early 1880s did not last.

This week’s Rate the Dress is extravagant, and over-the-top, and oh-so-Victorian (by which I mean it’s channelling at least four other timeperiods and using five different kinds of trim or fabric manipulation).