French Fashions – 1874

Two women are stepping out of a small boat at the shore of a river, in the cattails. The woman on the left wears a white round cap with black ribbon and pink flowers. Her blond hair is in two braids, and she wears pendant earrings. Her dress is turquoise with long sleeves and elaborate back detailing to emphasize the fashionable bustled silhoulette. The hem is accented with two rows of double pleated trim in a darker turquoise.

A wide fringed sash of darker turquoise is looped up as part of the trimming of the back of the skirt. The jacket hem, cuffs, and overskirt are also trimmed with the darker turquoise. The woman on the right wears her hair piled high with a small straw hat tipped far forward and decorated with a garland of leaves. Her dress is white with long sleeves and a jewel neck, edged with a ruffle. The dress is trimmed with rose pink bands at the cuffs and hem, white tassels along the hem, and a row of rose pink bows trims the center front. Her belt is rose pink.

Her underskirt is white with rose pink vertical stripes. She holds a bouquet of flowers in her left hand. The woman on the left clasps her right hand in the right hand of the women in white, and rests her left hand on her elbow, to assist the woman in white to step safely out of the boat. Behind them, a bridge with multiple arches is visible in the distance.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges