¦pASHION in the late 'fifties was singularly stable, and the only “ decided novelty ” which a contemporary record can discover is a slight increase in the size of bonnets. It was felt that the diminutive bonnet, hanging on the back of the head, was out of proportion to the mass of silk lace and other trimmings comprising a fashionable dress. An attempt was made to break the rigidity of the triangle into which woman had reduced her figute, although the method adopted—an enlargement of sleeves—had the effect of concealing the nartowncss of the waist, and so intensifying the uiangular effect.
Skirts were heavily flounced, and the favourite materials for bait dresses were tulle, crape, or tarlacan. Pearls, and Other gems, were fashionable as trimming, being used to gather in festoons the flounces of the dress. The sleeves of a bodice of 1857 are described as terminating in bracelets of coral.
Sleeves, which were considered as articles of lingerie, were extremely elaborate, sometimes consisting of puffed muslin or tuJle confined at the wrist with coloured ribbon, and enriched with five or six rows of Valenciennes lace.
Boys' dresses were more sensibly designed than formerly, bur Little girls were still burdened with a mass of frills and feathers borrowed from the fashions of their ciders.
I860
TT was in the early ’sixties that the crinoline achieved its most astonishing proportions. Woman’s form was reduced to an isosceles triangle, for even the narrowness of the waist was concealed by the width of sleeves or the amplitude of cloaks. The effect was completed by the smallness of the head-wear, with the hair confined in close-fitting bonnets tied with a bow under the chin. A pretty face was all that was needed to be irresistible, for every other portion of the female figure was most effectively concealed. In France, the hey-day of the Second Empire was a period of great luxury and ostentation. Ball dresses, especially, were costly and magnificent, and precious stones began to be worn in cvcr-incceasing numbers. In England the influence of the Court was calculated to restrain rather than to encourage extravagance, and the death of the Prince Consort in iS6i threw a cloud over social functions, which lasted for many years. However, the reign of the crinoline was just as lasting in England as in France, and even the dresses of little girls revealed the influence of the prevailing fashion. Men’s formal attire showed very little change.
World History
