French Fashions – Spring 1866

A woman and young girl stand in a parlor. The young girl on the left wears a Communion dress. Her white veil covers her face. Her dress is white with a jewel neckline, long narrow sleeves, and buttons down her bodice. She wears a white belt around her waist with a short sash hanging from it at the side displaying a cross. Her skirt has bands of graduated horizontal stripes, white on white. She holds a long white candle in her right hand and a book in the other. The woman on the right wears her hair adorned with flowers and a veil tied beneath her chin with wide white ribbon. Her dress is purple with a square neck and buttons all the way down. Next to the buttons is a stripe of black lace, off center, with the look of a double breasted cut.

At the hem of her skirt is a narrow purple ruffle edged with black lace. She has a red, blue, green, yellow and pink paisley shawl with fringe on the ends, draped over her elbows. She holds a small red book in her left hand. Both skirts are very wide; it is the height of the crinoline fashion. Behind them is a sideboard with a blue vase, a portrait of a woman in an oval frame decorated with carved bows and flowers at the top of the frame, a table covered with a fringed cloth, an upholstered chair, and draperies.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges