Dress consisting of a bodice, skirt and belt made of silk, Great Britain, ca. 1862

Dress consisting of a bodice, skirt and belt made from dark green shot silk with an all over darker green zig zag pattern and a floret design woven in dark green and pink.

The bodice is waist length, has a narrow band collar and opens down the centre front. The sleeves are three-quarter length, wide and headed by double gathered and puffed epaulets. The bodice is vertically tucked from the shoulder to bust. Green silk looped braid trimmed with crystal beads trims the shoulder seams, outside of the sleeve and cuff, and is stitched below the bust. The bodice fastens with black metal hooks and eyes with stud buttons of flower-shaped glass with double glass pendants. It is lined with unbleached cotton, boned at the side seams and front. There are tapes from the side seams. Hand stitched.

The skirt is flat pleated from panels at the centre front and back. There is a hook and eye fastening at the centre right front and watch pocket. The skirt is lined with glazed cotton and the hem is faced with green brush braid.

The belt has a diamond shaped panel centre front and back. At the front this is trimmed with four glass buttons and at the back with a button and pink stitched bow with streamers. The belt is lined with cotton, boned at the centre front and back, and hooks at the left side.

Given by Miss Edith Westbrook

By the 1860s, skirts had reached their fullest point. They were worn over wire ‘cage crinolines’, which gave maximum volume with minimum weight. This dress illustrates the style of the early 1860s. It has only a slightly pointed waist and a sleeve wide at the elbow, but narrow at the wrist. The puffed epaulettes at the top of the sleeves indicate historical influences, particularly the 16th century. They would have been seen in early English portraits.

T.222 to B-1969