Fashion Forecast: 1836, Part 2

What was the well-dressed young woman wearing in the second half of 1836?

In keeping with the deflation of sleeves that occurred earlier in the year, these dresses from August’s Court Magazine have sleeves cut much closer to the shoulder and upper arm, though there’s still fullness in the lower sleeves of the muslin Morning Dress at left and the illusion of fullness in the lace pelerine on the plaid Walking Dress at right. Purple and green seems to be a popular combination this year; note the plaid fabric and the fact that the green-trimmed Morning Dress includes purple gloves!

Skirts seem to be growing in fullness—witness this Ball Dress from September’s Court Magazine.  However, the crinoline was a thing of the future, so it took a lot of (heavy) petticoats to create this line. Imagine trying to dance with layers and layers of fabric swishing around your legs! No wonder women fainted at times—it took stamina to dance all night!  I do however like the pretty embroidered hem and accented bows at waist and sleeves.  There’s not much to be said about the Morning Dress at right, as so much is covered by the black mantle...though it does appear the plaid is cut on the bias.

This Evening Dress and Morning Dress from November’s Court Magazine are relatively plain in design, accented with black bands and bows in the dress at left and flounces of black lace at right. Note again the very full skirts, the black net mitts with the Evening Dress, and the bonnet at right that is fearfully but wonderfully made of red ribbon!

A handsome (if scarily) green Walking Dress from December’s Court Magazine showcases another trend seen this year with the collapse of the sleeve: the admiration of exaggeratedly sloping shoulders as an ideal of feminine beauty.  Take a look at dresses from 1834 and compare them to this year’s, and you’ll see what I mean.

Back to purple and green once more in these dresses from December’s Court Magazine! A very voluminous Walking Dress at left, with strange open oversleeves covering skin-tight undersleeves in dark purple...and a surprising raspberry-pink bonnet. The Morning Dress at right in emerald green has sleeves caught into puffs with self-fabric bands, a ruffle-trimmed pelerine bodice, and another pink headdress of ruffles and ruches:

And that will be it for Fashion Forecast posts, mostly because I lose interest in the clothes after this date and have collected very few prints from 1837 and onward: the drooping shoulders and frankly rather dowdy dresses just aren’t any fun! But I’ll continue to post new acquisitions to my collection as they arrive, and promise plenty more Regency Fabric posts in the coming months.