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10th Massachusetts, 1833, 19th century, 19th century clothing, authenticity, Clothing, common dress, fashion, fashion plates, living history, Making Things, style
Carriage and Morning Dress, 1832. LAPL Fashion Plate Collection
So, about that 1833 thing…
No, it’s not that I’m reconsidering. It is merely that as I consider the options, the fashion plates are a bit overwhelming. On the other hand, I am getting really good at recognizing the look of the 1830s in undated portraits. There’s an upside to everything.
Extant garments are fairly plentiful in the Usual Suspects’ Collections; there’s even a Tumblr. There’s a Tumblr for everything.
Woman’s Green, Tan, Yellow and Blue Striped/Plaid Gown. OSV, 26.33.63
Fortunately, there are some tamer garments out there, with sleeves less likely to result in flight in a high wind. Bonus: not floral, and not silk. Printed wool seems to have been fairly common, but the weight is just impossible to find. I did some looking in New York, but nothing convinced me with print or price.
This is a milita muster, so there will be time outside. I’m toying with a habit or Amazone (hard to resist a garment with that name) though the most I know about horses is that they have four legs. It’s tailoring that attracts me, not use. Also, wool. Mid-September might warrant wool, even if that’s hard to imagine today. (The downside, of course, is that there’s menswear to be made, too, so a simple dress is surely the best option.)
Two questions: 1) what is the exact date of the green/yellow plaid dress in the pic and 2) how lightweight is this printed wool that you speak of? I’m curious because I’ll be doing a few cold weather events for this time period and would welcome something other than cotton. But did they also make just plain regular wool dresses too? The sleeves on my first 1830s dress weren’t as garish as I thought they’d be. I suppose I could have increased the size, but I went with what the pattern called for and I think it’s quite nice.
Exact date? Who knows. The date OSV gives is, I think, ca. 1830. That means 1825-1835. By the sleeves, I would say 1828, but they are likely hedging and guessing that someone could wear a dress for more than a year. The trim makes me think it is more 1820s, too; those points were a thing in the 1820s. (The Manchester Gallery Archery dress has them.)
The wool is thin– gauzey, but not loosely woven. Challis is what we’d call it today. Burnley & Trowbridge’s “Virginia” cloth might work for a plain gown. Most of the garments at the Met seem to be cotton or silk, but I do know an extant mid-1830s gown that is printed wool in a pinkish color. It’s probably 1836; the top of the sleeves are banded down.
It’s interesting that in Costume in Detail, the late 1820s-early 1830s gowns are all silks or printed cottons and cotton muslins; the lightweight wools don’t appear until the early 1840s. Still, I don’t think that rules out wool completely– it only means I have to dig deeper into regional New England collections.
The original English magazines from which these plates were cut would have included descriptions of the gowns, including material; the French helpfully include the type of dress and the material in some of their captions.
One reason I am considering a habit is that I have a quantity of lightweight plain-weave wool in a good slate-grey color; so far, the sleeves also seem a bit more controlled in the habit images, probably because wool is heavier and you want smaller sleeves for sport. But it does mean some intensive tailoring of a new kind, and I’m not sure that it is even remotely plausible or appropriate.
You know … you know … I patterned that dress for my book and I’d be happy to send you the file. Or if you want a slightly earlier one, I could send you that.
I don’t have any of my stuff with me at work, but IIRC I put it in the middle of the 1820s. The sleeves get really big in fashion plates around 1827.
The OSV gown? I’d be interested in seeing it diagrammed. I think you’re right about the sleeves. What I always wonder about is the degree individual preference played in determining a particular person’s choice of style. We’ll never know, but I personally dislike ornament, so my clothes in all centuries are very simple. How would my preferences have been accepted or expressed in the 1820s or 1830s? When I find the time travel machine, I’ll send you a ticket, too!
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