evening dresses

1830s and 1840s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by an emphasis on breadth, initially at the shoulder and later in the hips, in contrast to the narrower silhouettes that had predominated between 1800 and the 1820s.

Women's fashions

1830s Overview

In the 1830s, fashionable women's clothing styles had distinctive large "leg of mutton" or "gigot" sleeves, above large full conical skirts, ideally with a narrow, low waist between (achieved through corseting). The bulkiness of women's garments both above and below the waist was intended to make the waist look smaller than it was — this was the final repudiation of any last lingering aesthetic influences of the Empire silhouette of ca. 1795-1825. Heavy stiff fabrics such as brocades came back into style, and many 18th-century gowns were brought down from attics and cut up into new garments. The combination of sloping shoulders and sleeves which were very large over most of the arm (but narrowing to a small cuff at the wrist) is quite distinctive to the day dresses of the 1830s.

Pelerines, or lace coverings draped over the shoulders, were popular (one of several devices, along with full upper-arm sleeves and wide necklines, to emphasize the shoulders and their width).

The ca. 1835 fashion plate (right) shows both male and female styles (note that it may not be obvious on first glance that the woman has a small waist, because of her large sleeves).

Gowns

The fashionable feminine figure, with its sloping shoulders, rounded bust, narrow waist and full hips, was emphasized in various ways with the cut and trim of gowns. To about 1835, the small waist was accentuated with a wide belt (a fashion continuing from the 1820s). Later the waist and midriff were unbelted but cut close to the body, and the bodice began to taper to a small point at the front waist. The fashionable corset now had gores to individually cup the breasts, and the bodice was styled to emphasize this shape.

Evening dresses had very wide necklines and short, puffed sleeves reaching to the elbow from a dropped shoulder, and were worn with mid-length gloves. The width at the shoulder was often emphasized by gathered or pleated panels of fabric arranged horizontally over the bust and around the shoulders.

Day dresses generally had high necklines, and shoulder width was emphasized with pelerines or wide collars that rested on the gigot sleeves. Summer afternoon dresses might have wide, low necklines similar to evening dresses, but with long sleeves. Skirts were pleated into the waistband of the bodice, and held out with starched petticoats of linen or cotton.

Around 1835, the fashionable skirt-length for middle- and upper-class women's clothes dropped from ankle-length to floor-length.

Outerwear

Riding habits consisted of a high-necked, tight-waisted jacket with the fashionable dropped shoulder and huge gigot sleeves, worn over a tall-collared shirt or chemisette, with a long matching petticoat or skirt. Tall top hats with veils were worn.

Shawls were worn with short-sleeved evening gowns early in the decade, but they were not suited to the wide gigot sleeves of the mid 1830s.

For evening, especially in very cold climates, voluminous coats like opera coats with fur trim or fur linings were worn with the evening gown.

Style gallery 1830-1835

1. Fashion plate from Mercure des Salons
2. Sophie Guillemette, Grand Duchess of Baden wears a white gown that just skims her ankles and a tawny-colored shawl. Her flat shoes have ribbon laces and square toes. 1831.
3. Mrs. Edward Kellogg wears the frilled indoor day cap of a married woman with a wide ribbon bow tied under her chin. Her simple dark gown has gigot sleeves and a modestly broad neckline, filled in with a ruffed chemisette.
4. Fashion plate from Wiener Moden, in which anatomical accuracy gives way to the desire to present a trendy fashion silhouette. The afternoon dress has a wide, low neckline and long sleeves.
5. German fashion of 1834 with echoes of the Renaissance: a wide-necked black gown features a tight belt at the raised waistline. Hair is worn in elaborate curls and knots.
6. Caroline, Countess of Holnstein wears her hair severly parted in the center front and across the top of her head. Her long hair is braided, and the braids are looped over either ear and wound into a knot at the crown of her head. She wears a white gown with a wide belt and gathers at the front to emphasise the bust under a pink satin coat with a fur collar and fur trim. German, 1834.
7. Fashion plate from Wiener Zeitschrift
8. 1830s Riding habits with fashionable full sleeves

Style gallery 1835-1839

1. Marie Lafont-Porcher's hair is styled in a high knot with wide side-curls; her gauzy gown has a neck ruff and a wide collar, and she wears a fur piece similar to that in the Gazette des Salons fashion plate above. 1835
2. Conservative, middle-class fashion: Eliza Clarke Cory Clench wears a white cap with a large striped ribbon bow that contrasts with her bright green dress. Canada, 1834-36.
3. Viennese fashion plate for February 1837 shows front and back views of the newly fashionable dangling clusters of curls on the sides worn with an ornate knot of hair at the crown. A headband is worn for evening. The waist is still defined by a wide belt, but it sits lower on the body.
4. By 1837, fullness was dropping from just off the shoulder to the middle of the arm. The bonnet is smaller than those worn earlier in the decade, and black lace mitts (fingerless gloves) are worn with the white day dress. Hair is worn in wide clusters of short sausage curls. French.
5. Mathilde, Gräfin Lynar wears a brown velvet gown with snug shoulders and lower sleeves, and fullness at the middle of the arm. The waist is darted to fit and comes to a small point in front. Hair is smoothed above the ears and wound into a braided crown. German, 1837.
6. Adélaide d'Orléans wears a heavily decorated straw bonnet over a frilled cap, 1838.

Caricature gallery

1. "Waist and Extravagance", ca. 1830 fashion satire

1840s Overview

The fashions of the 1840s do not have any real single distinguishing characteristic (such as most other periods of 5-10 years within the Victorian era do), but skirts tended to change from a conical shape to a bell shape, aided by a new method of attaching the skirts to the bodice using organ or cartridge pleats which cause the skirt to spring out from the waist. Sleeves were narrower than either the gigot sleeves of the 1830s or the pagoda sleeves of the 1850s and 1860s, and fullness was lower on the arm.

There was less emphasis on the shoulders, and more emphasis on a narrow waist, which now became low and pointed.

During the 1830s and 1840s, full skirts were achieved mainly through layers of petticoats, as opposed to the crinoline of the second half of the 1850s.

Hairstyles and headgear

The wide hairstyles of the previous decade gave way to fashions which kept the hair closer to the head, and the high bun or knot on the crown descended to the back of the head. Hair was still generally parted in the center. Isolated long curls dangling down towards the front (sometimes called "spaniel curls") were worn, often without much relationship to the way that the rest of the hair was styled. Alternately the side hair could be smoothed back over the ears or looped and braided, with the ends tucked into the bun at the back.

Linen caps with frills, lace, and ribbons were worn by married women indoors, especially for daywear.

Bonnets for street wear were smaller than in the previous decade, and were less heavily decorated. Married women wore their caps under their bonnets.

Outerwear

With the narrow, sloping shoulder line of the 1840s, the shawl returned to fashion, where it would remain through the 1860s. It was now generally square and worn folded on the diagonal.

Style gallery - 1840s

1. Transitional gown, c. 1840. The fullness at the shoulder has moved down the arm, and although the gown is still belted in the 1830s manner, the fabric is gathered in to accentuate the V-shaped front rather than the breadth of the shoulders. This is an early image of hair worn in cascades of curls or ringlets.
2. 1841 fashion plate shows lower sleeve fullness, triangular or V-shaped emphasis in the bodice, and a sloping shoulder line. The indoor cap is trimmed with ribbon loops and frills.
3. Queen Victoria in a fashionable hairstyle of 1842.
4. A fashion plate from La Mode which seems to play up the contrast between a menswear-influenced riding habit and more ordinary high fashion.
5. Fashion plate from Le Moniteur de la Mode. Day dress (left) and evening dress (right).
6. Vicomtess Othenin d'Haussonville wears her hair parted in the center and smoothed over her ears.
7. Hairstyle of c.1845, with a central part, long sausage curls, and a bun on the back of the crown, is a fashionably romantic echo of mid-seventeenth century styles. This style would remain popular into the next decade. German, c. 1845.
8. Young lady of Holland wears a lace collar and ruffled chemise or chemisette with her dark dress.

Men's fashion

In this period, men's fashion plates continue to show an ideal silhouette with broad shoulders, and a narrow waist, but the waistline dropped through the period.

Shirts of linen or cotton featured tall standing collars, occasionally turned down, and were worn with wide cravats tied in a soft bow; dark cravats were popular for day wear.

Frock coats (in French redingotes) increasingly replaced tail coats for informal day wear, and might be double-breasted. Shoulder emphasis fell lower on the arm; shoulders were sloped and puffed sleeve heads gradually shrank and then disappeared. Waistcoats or vests were single- or double-breasted, with shawl or notched collars.

A cutaway morning coat was worn with light trousers for any formal daytime occasion; evening dress called for a dark tail coat and trousers.

Full-length trousers began to have the modern fly-front closure, replacing the earlier fall-front. Breeches remained a requirement for formal functions at the British court (as they would be throughout the century). Breeches continued to be worn for horseback riding and other country pursuits, especially in Britain, with tall fitted boots.

The crowns of tall hats were less curvy than in the previous period, and grew taller on the way to the stovepipe shape of the 1850s. Curled hair and sideburns remained fashionable, along with moustaches.

Style gallery

1. 1830s fashion plate shows the small, high waist that was the ideal of French fashion in the 1830s. Frock coat (left) and morning coat (right).
2. Frederik Hansen Sødring wears a brocade waistcoat with a high black velvet shawl collar. The front flap of his fall-front trousers can be seen clearly in this 1832 portrait.
3. 1834 portrait of Davy Crockett shows the fashionable dark cravat worn with a turn-over collar.
4. A gentleman of the Wilkes Family, 1838-40, wears a dark cravat. His tall coat collar is notched and spreads onto his shoulders. The sleeve has just a hint of fullness at the sleeve head.
5. Viennese fashion plate of 1841 shows at-home wear (a patterned dressing gown) and visiting wear. The top hat is becoming taller.
6. Alessandro Manzoni wears tan fly-front trousers with a dark coat and waistcoat. Italy, 1841.
7. 1848 fashion plate shows the lowered waistline and full, rounded chest popular in the latter 1840s.

See also

• Victorian fashion

References

Ashelford, Jane: The Art of Dress: Clothing and Society 1500-1914, Abrams, 1996. ISBN 0-8109-6317-5

Goldthorpe, Caroline: From Queen to Empress: Victorian Dress 1837-1877, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, ISBN 0-87099-535-9

Tozer, Jane and Sarah Levitt, Fabric of Society: A Century of People and their Clothes 1770-1870, Laura Ashley Press, ISBN 0-9508913-0-4

External links

• The Romantic Era: Fashions 1825-1845
• 1840s Men's Fashions - circa 1840 Men's Fashion Photos (Daguerreotypes) with Annotations
• Men's fashion plates of the 1830s and 1840s at Victoriana.com