French Fashions – Winter 1858

Two women and a little girl are depicted in a parlor. The woman on the left wears her hair up with braids at the front and decorated with a black ribbon. Her jacket has a jewel neck and three quarter length bell sleeves. The jacket is gray and has three rows of buttons at the center front, and rows of bands ending with buttons, in pyramidal stacks on the jacket skirts, and the lower part of the sleeves. Her blouse is white with very wide lacy gathered cuffs, and a small collar.

Her skirt is maroon and has black pinstripes running horizontally. She also wears maroon bead bracelets on each wrist. The little girl wears her hair down in blond ringlets and has a blue ribbon in her hair. Her dress is blue, off the shoulder, has short sleeves, and ends just below the knee. Her dress is decorated with a triangle pattern, on the collar and on the skirt, outlined in black and filled in with black horizontal lines. Under her dress, she wears a white blouse with a jewel neckline and gathered full sleeves.

A small section of her petticoat or knickers is visible at the knee. She wears gray and black boots, and white stockings. The woman on the right wears a green bonnet with matching ribbon and plume. Her dress is navy and has a multi-tiered skirt. Her dress is covered by a black velvet mantelet, with fringe edging the yoke. Full lacy white sleeves are visible where she holds a book on a table for the little girl. Behind the group is a large folding screen, and a piano.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges