Tag: august

uwmspeccoll:

Fashion Friday 

The latest from Godey’s Magazine and Lady’s Book.  This month features home fashions for ‘real utility’ as opposed to the ball gowns and promenade dresses of the previous months.  Additionally, the August issue has all you need to know about the trends for mantillas and morning caps.   We know our creative viewers have been awaiting some new patterns so we’ve included a knitted neck tie pattern and suggestions for embroidery designs!  Trying your hand at needle crafts for the first time? Don’t worry, you have the whole month of August to work on your piece before the weather turns and we present you with a new pattern!

August Fashions plate: 

• Walking dresses of brocaded silk or satin-striped silk.  Try ornamenting your dress with double knots of ribbon in the same hue as the dress (figure 1).  Newly popular is lace put on the corsage and sleeves in a “succession of small folds or flounces, falling one above the other, continued from shoulder to hem in being narrower at the bodice” (figure 2)
• the Prevailing shape for sleeves this season: demi-long, ornamented to match the dress, and with full muslin undersleeves.  

Full-Color Fashion Plate:

• Figure 1 illustrates a home-dress for young ladies featuring:a plain, full skirt; a corsage “imitated
  from those worn by European peasants but modified for the style and material”; very short sleeves; a full, long silk apron (with pockets!); puffing of silk as ornamentation along the chemisettes, sleeves, and the hem
  of the apron.  
• Figure 2 illustrates a robe of white cambric featuring: a garnet colored wrapper of silk or cashmere; richly trimmed hems and sleeves with parallel rows of velvet; a plain, quilled ruff at the throat; a white breakfast cap.  

Selected advice from “Chit-chat Upon Philadelphia Fashions”:

• On being yourself and dressing accordingly: “A simple dress, arranged from a common wardrobe, is often more effective than the most costly robe, chosen without reference to the style or character of the wearer.” 
• On not acting or dressing improperly just because you’re at a party: “Indeed, public fancy balls often lead to so many unpleasant things, that a lady cannot be too guarded in her dress and manner.” 
• On dressing children for summer: “Their limbs should be allowed free play, and the material of the dress should be coarse enough to allow of a little dirt, and a little washing, if necessary….If they must be dressed like dolls in the winter, let them be natural, childlike children during the seclusion of the summer months.”
• On gaiters without leather tops: “they have an unfinished, clumsy air….’like a finger without a nail’”

A note about embroidery:

• “Handkerchiefs embroidered in colors are in decidedly bad taste”  (Please read article above, next to the embroidery designs.)

– Katie, Special Collection Graduate Intern