French Bridal Fashions – 1869

There are five women, one a bride, in a salon. The woman on the far left wears an ornamented band on her hair, with a short blue lace veil attached. Her dress is blue with a low scooped neckline, over a white high collared blouse with pintucks, with a pendant on a ribbon worn over it. Her dress is long sleeved with black bows down the center front of the bodice and on the sides of the skirt.

The dress has tiers of flounces in blue with wide black edging on the skirt, black cuffs with lace, and lace at the neckline. She wears small pendant earrings. Next to her is the bride whose veil reaches almost to the floor over a floral headpiece. Her white dress has a jewel neckline edged with a narrow ruffled collar and long narrow sleeves, and decorated with rosettes and lace. The bodice is decorated with rosettes at center front and at the top of the sleeves. The sleeves have wide pleated cuffs, and pleated fan details adorn the back of the skirt. The overskirt has three tiers of ruffles at the hem and a moderate train. An elaborate tassel hangs at the left of her waistline. She holds a mirror in her hands.

The woman next to her wears her hair up with two strips of white eyelet as a headpiece with white flowers at her brow, and the eyelet hanging as lappets in the back. Her dress is red with a jewel neckline and long narrow sleeves. Rows of box pleats trim the length of the sleeves and ruching trims the top of the sleeves. Her overskirt is plain red, and the underskirt is red with black stripes, edged with a wide bias-cut ruffle at the hem. The woman next to her wears her hair up with a white flat-brimmed hat with a blue ribbon. Her dress is white with a jewel neckline and long narrow sleeves.

A white ruffle edges the yoke of the bodice, and blue bows decorate the skirt. The skirt has three rows of ruffles at the hem, a short train, and a pouf just below the waistline in back. She wears a blue sash tied into a bow at the back. She wears long pendant earrings. The woman on the far right wears her hair up with a ribbon band and a white bow. She is shown as shorter than the other women pictured, so she may be younger. Her dress is white with mint green vertical stripes. The dress has a v-neck over a white pin-tucked blouse with a ruffle at the jewel neckline.

The long narrow sleeves are cut on the bias. The bodice has a crossover or double breasted front, with three rows of three small buttons at the front, white zigzag trim at the neckline, and bows at the shoulders. Two rows of four small bows adorn the front of the skirt at hip level, and more are placed at the top of the pleated band at the hem of the skirt.

She wears pendant earrings. All the skirts are very wide; it is the height of the crinoline fashion. Behind the women is a mantelpiece with a large mirror above it and a vase of pink flowers at each end.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges