Fashion 1850-1860s
The world was torn with war-revolutions of 1849, Crimea, the Italian and American civil wars-all the while leaving Empress
Eugenia of France and Queen Victoria of England to set the social tone while subsidizing the Industrial Revolution. Both
leaders were intent upon developing the industries and societies of their respective countries. This was the period of major
explosion in industrial innovations from the home sewing machine to patents for new types of construction of the new bisque
doll. Paper products continued to be produced more cost effectively resulting in an explosion of magazines and patterns for the
lady of the house. Magazines began to include doll dressmaking instructions for the “young” lady of the house. Many
magazines were published at this time but the one noted for its professional patterns was La Poupee Modele by Mme Lavallee-
Peronne. Trousseaux were extensive. One trousseau lists more than 148 items.
Trousseaux usually included:
- Multiple dresses anywhere from 2-10 or more. Usually multiple styles, often multiple purposes including day, evening,
dinner, dance and ball gowns. Sportswear appears.
During this time skirts and separate jackets or bodices appear.
Headwear of caps, hats and bonnets
Capes and mantalets and often a scarf.
Under garments including multiple petticoats, chemise, stays and drawers.
Shoes and stockings-several pair.
Gloves and mittens
Nightgown and sacque
Apron
Reticule
Jewelry included necklaces, pendant earrings and often a watch.
Additional items might include comb and brush, sewing items, writing items, ribbons and flowers.
peace and industrial revolution with a world in miniature envied even today.
Cloth
Cotton, silk, wool and combinations of these continued to be common during this period.
Manufacture:
Family sewing machines were now available. For the first time, the upper class had clothing with secure stitching for everyday
garments not just professionally made gowns. Now many home made doll garments were also machine stitched as well as
hand stitched.
Dye:
Aniline dyes were developed in 1850 and found expression in cloth as exemplified by “mauve” purple. The antiques-bible.com
defines aniline dye:
Aniline dye, made from the coal-tar derivative, aniline, was accidentally discoverd in 1857 by 18-year old William Perkin while
trying to make synthetic quinine.
While aniline dye, the first ever synthetic dye, can take on many colors, it is most often associated with a purple coined as the
name "mauve". Aniline dye was used to color paper, fabric, and leather.
Synthetic dyes are either made from aniline or chrome. The latter has since proved to produce a more stable product, since
aniline dyes fade and change color when exposed to light and moisture.
Despite its shortcomings, the mauve of aniline dyes changed the world. Queen Victoria appropriated the color for her garment at
her daughter's wedding, and a whole new industry of dye manufacturing was born.
Red became a popular color and addition to dresses, stockings and stays. At the time red was thought to have medicinal
properties.
Embellishments of the clothing of the time included both man made and machine made:
Velvet Ribbons
Lace
Braid
Fringe
Grelot are small bells
Cost
Style
Frocks (generally long loosely fitted garments) and robes continue to be popular but this period includes two piece dresses of
jackets and skirts. Sleeves evolved from a single seam resulting in a tubular form to two seams resulting in a more naturally
curved sleeve on a fitted garment such as dresses and jackets.
Front sleeve seam Side view of curved sleeve Back sleeve seam
Skeleton petticoats were popular as they were much cleaner and lighter than the former horsehair crinoline.
Skeleton Hoop Petticoat Crinoline of metal hoops encased in cotton
Crinoline now referred not to the dirty horsehair slips of the previous period but to a hooped slip. Maginnis notes:
Fashionable women enjoyed a slight dress "reform" of their own in the 1850's by the adoption of the Hoop Skirt. The
hoop (or Crinoline as it was named after the former petticoats of horsehair), liberated women of the weighty, hot
unsanitary bulk of petticoats, and gave free movement to the legs.
The tendency of the hoop to flip up showing the legs, also required women adopt a version of the bloomer trousers as
underwear. The earliest hoops were rigid iron that had a tendency to thwack the unhooped sex in the shins. As a
consequence, when added to the horror of seeing one's female dependents wearing (oh!) bifurcated garments
beneath the hoop, men were appalled, and tried to put a stop to the fashion by decrying them from newspapers and
the pulpit, ridiculing them in song and poetic lampoon, and mercilessly caricaturing them in cartoons.
The benefits of the hoop for the wearers, however, insured that women defied disapproving fathers and husbands in
droves, and iron quickly gave way to more forgiving spring steel wire, which made larger and larger skirt foundations
light enough to be possible.
Women's dress in the era 1850-65 gets progressively larger and more horizontal in outline. Gone are all the lines
pointing down, and women in fashion illustrations get a slightly more assertive look in their expressions, more often
looking out at the viewer at eye level.
interest in Turkish styles subsequent to the Crimean war).
Amelia Bloomer was a leading reformer for women’s rights.
Maginnis notes:
- An American suffragist and reformer, Amelia Bloomer led the forefront of dress reform in the 1850's
propagating what became known as The Bloomer Costume (originally designed by Elizabeth Smith Miller),
a very modest ensemble consisting of a knee length gown worn over demure Turkish trousers. It is a
measure of how severely cumbersome and repressed mid-19th Century Western women's clothes were that
a garment worn by conservative Moslem women was so comparatively freeing in style that it actively
shocked most contemporary observers.
Garibaldi shirts were named for Guiseppe Garibaldi who visited
England in 1860 after the invasion of Sicily. Garibaldi wore a
loose red shirt with fastenings down the front. The shirt could
be red or often white. This ushered in the skirt and blouse
period of fashion which took hold by 1890.
Zouave jacket: Laurie Nienhaus writes on her website
www.glily.com:
- While the events and thinking of an era tremendously
influence the course of fashion, there are times when
one seemingly small fragment of the whole picture so
captures the imagination that it begins to steer its own
course. This is most certainly true of the Zouave (pronounced zoo-av) jacket, first worn by women as a show of
patriotism, but quickly gaining in popularity until it became a staple wardrobe item of the antebellum and Civil War era
woman.
Zouaves began as Algerian and Moroccan volunteer units in the French army, best known as the French Foreign
Legion. Their reputations as tough daredevils appealed to the French, and over time Zouave units became
increasingly comprised of native French. These men wore a variation of the original Zouave uniform – a sleeveless
vest, very baggy trousers, a long woolen sash, and a tassel attached to either a turban or hat.
Zouaves did not capture the attention of the American public until the Crimean War (1856-1858). This was the first
war to be photographed and widely reported in European and American newspapers and periodicals. It was then that
America caught its first glimpse of the dashing and heroic Zouave.
However, it was Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, friend of President Lincoln, who was responsible for the popularity of
American Zouave units and, undoubtedly, of the Zouave jacket. In 1857, a chance encounter with a veteran of the
French Zouaves inspired the charismatic Ellsworth to form an American unit in Chicago, the United States Zouave
Cadets. Within three years these men were considered to be the finest militia unit in the Midwest.
Taking his idea even further, Ellsworth began a six-week tour with fifty of his best men in the summer of 1860. The
purpose of this highly successful and publicized tour was to challenge the state militias of 12 states. The Zouaves’
exotic dress created a sensation at each stop of their tour, and as they humbled each of their competitors with their
superbly choreographed exhibitions, they also awed thousands of spectators. All of this quickly brought wide acclaim
to Ellsworth, and what came to be known as the Zouave craze began sweeping the north.
In a very short span of time, American Zouave companies began springing up around the country, in both the north
and the south. When Ellsworth was suddenly killed on March 24, 1861, as he and
his men helped seize Alexandria, Virginia, “Avenge Ellsworth” became the northern
battle cry, and the popularity of the Zouaves increased even further, as did women’s
interest in the Zouave jacket. Women’s Zouave jackets were a variation of the
bolero jacket, a short, snugly fitting jacket usually worn open. Later, a style that
joined at the neckline became popular, as did a variation with a pointed back.
Pagoda sleeves – wider at the elbow and three quarters in length distinguished the
Zouave jacket through most of its popularity. These jackets were originally made of
fine black wool trimmed with red braid. Lined with black silk or cotton, they were
almost exclusively trimmed with black as the style progressed – most often a
soutache braid applied in intricate loops, swirls, and bands in imitation of military
motifs. It was not long before the style soon allowed for a variety of color and fabric combinations, making Zouave
jackets the accessory that bent the fashion rule requiring a bodice and skirt be of the same fabric. Young women,
especially, began choosing fabrics that complemented rather than matched their bodices, shirts, and skirts. While a
Zouave jacket could be worn inside, they were most suitable for outdoor wear, such as for walking dresses and riding
habits.
By 1863, the popularity of the Zouave jacket began to fade as styles with more elaborate back silhouettes, utilizing
peplums, tails, and basques, began to be seen. In various places throughout the country, they enjoyed a brief
resurgence in 1883, and again in 1892.
Russian tunics: Russian styling in Western Europe appears to have first appeared in the 1860s in France. The chemise russe,
or Russian blouse, was inspired by the loose fitting Russian peasant tunic with a high buttoning collar. It was first mentioned in
the important Parisian fashion magazine, La Mode Ilustree during the 1860s and numerous references to clothing with Russian
styling ensued. The most distinctive feature of a garment with Russian styling was the distinctive collar types. There were two
collar styles. One was a closed collar worn tight around the neck. The other was a wide square cut open collar. The Russian
garments were basically simple with little detail. Often there was embroidery around the collar which might be repeated around
the wrist cuffs and waist band.
Dolls representing infants wore white long dresses trimmed with embroidery, lace and tucks. Chemises were almost as long as
the dress. Stays were sometimes found as well. The sleeves differed from the previous period as they were elbow length.
The dresses often had a decorated piece of fabric in the shape of an inverted triangle on the bodice. Any bibs were long ago
lost. Bonnets were decorated with lace.
Montanari baby in all original costume
Dolls representing boys wore tunics, short jackets or loose shirts with wide collars. Dolls representing men often wore longer
jackets with long sleeves. They frequently had white shirts and vests with wing collars and bow ties. Long trousers were light,
dark or patterned. The Zouave style of jacket and loose pants was also popular on dolls representing men of the time.
Resources
Coleman, Dorothy, Elizabeth, and Evelyn. Collector's Book of Dolls' Clothes Costumes in Miniature: 1700-1929. New York:
Crown Publishers 1975.
Gosh, Pat. www.dollcostumersguild.com Site for information on making appropriate period costumes for dolls
Maginnis, Tara, http://www.costumes.org. Site is well organized with excellent pictures and links.
Trestain, Eileen. Dating Fabrics A Color Guide 1800-1960. American Quilters Society, Paducah Ky. 1998.
www.vintageconnection.net resource for information on period costumes including fastenings
www.offray.com resource for history of ribbon
www.fashion-era.com
www.hal.ucr.edu Site for information on Regency dress
www.mini-magic.com Resource for silk ribbons and miniature trims
www.spnea.org New England History Museum
www.straw.com Reference for the history of dyes
www.vroma.org Reference regarding dress of the Roman Empire
www.history.com History Channel collection of articles
www.pastpatterns.com Overview of history of fashion and person sized patterns from many fashion periods
www.gallery.vintagehatshop.com Resource with pictures of headware throughout history
www.orignals-by-kay.com Overview of history of fashion and patterns from many periods
www.koshka-the-cat.com Overview of history of fashion and person sized patterns from many fashion periods
www.robinstokes.com 1860s prints from Godeys
www.history.rochester.edu/godeys 1850s prints from Godeys
www.usc.edu/e_resources Complete Godeys Ladies Book 1830-1880. Must be a member of USC to access electronically.
Other colleges also have access to this complete information. Contact your local University library for information.
www.marlamallett.com Exquisite examples of lace from her personal collection
