French Fashions – Winter 1846

With a French chateau in the distance, a mother and her two young daughters walk outside in winter attire. The mother is dressed in a forest green dress with horizontal stripes of a slightly darker green. Her long sleeves are tightly fitted with white lace cuffs. Over this she wears a dark blue three-quarter length mantelet, trimmed along the edges with a zigzag pattern, like rickrack. She wears a white bonnet with white feather plumes and a white wide ribbon ties. She wears yellow gloves and holds a white lace handkerchief.

The mother gestures down to her youngest daughter who wears a gray dress with two vertical embroidered garlands on the skirt. Over her dress she wears a fitted green jacket or short coat, edged with ruffles and fastened at the waist. Her ruffled collar is tied with a red bow. She wears black and gray boots, and a green bonnet, trimmed with a green bow. The ribbon ties are floating loose over her blond curls. The older daughter gazes at her mother while she jumps rope. She wears a dark gray dress trimmed with with six rows of black ribbon at the hem.

On the bodice the deep v neck is also trimmed in black, and had bands across the center mirroring the skirt. Her sleeves are snug, and have white cuffs. Her ruffled collar is tied with a blue and white striped ribbon. Over her dress is a purple mantelet edged in ruffles. She wears wears white ruffled pantalettes, black boots, and a pink quilted hat with pink ribbon ties and trimmed with a white feather plume. She also wears her bonnet untied. The family stands near trees and a wall with a large neoclassical urn.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges