Fashions – Spring 1840

Fashions for April 1840 Victorian Promenade and Evening Attire

This exquisite hand-colored fashion engraving, titled “Fashions for April 1840,” captures the distinctive tailoring transition at the absolute start of the Victorian era. The lower half of the composition highlights two elegant women in outdoor visiting gowns characterized by long, pointed corseted waistlines and full bell skirts. The lady on the left wears a beautiful taupe or bronze-brown day dress adorned with a vertical column of dark patterned lace trim, while her companion models an opulent emerald green satin dress featuring a deeply pleated cross-over bodice and matching decorative lace insertions along the skirt front.

Antique Early Victorian Coiffures and Floral Millinery Trimmings

The upper section of this vintage costume print functions as an elaborate hair and accessory catalog, isolating three half-length portraits with distinct styling variations. These figures display high-society evening gowns in soft yellow, pastel blue, and dusty rose, each framed by intricate white lace berthas and pelerine collars. Their hair is meticulously styled into the iconic long ringlets and looped chignons of the 1840s, heavily decorated with delicate lace day caps, trailing silk ribbons, and fresh botanical blossoms, making this print a valuable archive for historical hair artists and antique millinery collectors.