French Fashions – Spring 1867

Four women depicted outside in a garden. All the women wear black boots which are visible below their ankle length skirts. The woman on the left wears a riding habit with a top hat with a white ribbon. Her jacket and skirt are black with horizontal fastenings. She wears a maroon bow tie, carries a riding crop in her right hand, and wears pendant pearl earrings.

A small section of her white vest is visible at her waist, and her skirt is caught up at the right side, revealing a white underskirt edged with two narrow pleated flounces. The woman next at the right wears a low brimmed hat trimmed with red flowers and ribbons. Her princess-line dress is tan with a narrow white standing collar and long sleeves. She wears a red bow tie and has black buttons down the front of her dress. Her dress has graduated black vertical stripes at the hem of her skirt, at her shoulders, and end of her sleeves. She wears blue gloves, and pendant earrings.

The next women wears her hair back in a large bun, with a small white cap trimmed with leaves tied under her bun with white ribbons. She wears a bright blue skirt and a matching jacket with buttons down the front and long sleeves. Her jacket has fringe at the shoulders and on the hem. Her skirt has a black overskirt ending just below the knee above the blue skirt.

The black overskirt is drawn up in scallops with blue rosettes at intervals. Her accessories include a blue parasol in her right hand and pendant pearl earrings. The woman on the far right wears a small white hat, trimmed with flowers, with white and red ribbons tied under her chin. Her light blue jacket loosely skims her figure. It has bands of black lace outlining the armholes, cuffs, and the center front of the jacket. The jacket hem is a zigzag, edged with black lace and fringe.

Above this on the hem of the jacket is a pattern of black dots. This zigzag pattern is repeated along the hem of the skirt. On each zigzag at the hem, and on the jacket in two places, are black embroidered motifs of vines, grape leaves, and grapes. She holds a white handkerchief in her left hand. All the skirts are very wide; it is the height of the crinoline fashion. Behind the women is a large urn on a balustrade, trees, and figures on horseback.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges