French Fashions – Winter 1868

Five women are depicted in a drawing room. The woman on the left left wears her hair drawn back in a bun, with a small pink hat with a matching plume. Her dress is white or light gray and has long narrow sleeves. She wears a green, yellow, red, and blue striped sash tied at her waist and pearl earrings. The sash is looped over itself and hangs in back below her waist. The woman next to her is seated and writing in a notebook.

She wears a small white hat, and oval pendant earrings. Her hair is dressed back in ringlets. Her dress is pale yellow with multiple narrow black lines of trim at the hem and center front. She wears a dark red mantelet edged with lines of black trim. The woman next to her wears a black snood and bands of black ribbon in her hair. Her green dress has a v neck over a white blouse with a jewel neck. The dress has long narrow sleeves and fringe at the armholes and waist.

A pattern of circles decorates the bodice and skirt, and there is a large decorative pattern on the skirt front between the circles, with a white lace bow accent near the hem. She holds a white hat and has a white lace shawl draped over her left arm. The woman to her right wears a white Watteau style coat with gold bands in right angle patterns with white fringe edging the front, hem, and sleeves. Her blouse is white with a narrow standing collar, and her skirt is gold.

She wears a small flat brown and tan hat tipped forward over her bun, and pendant pearl earrings. The woman at the far right wears her hair up in a roll at the back, adorned with a pink rose, and fluffy bangs. Her white dress is off the shoulder and short sleeved. The dress has pink ribbon and white ruffles trimming the bodice, and a wide pink sash at her waist draped behind with a large bow at knee level.

She carries a bouquet in her right hand and wears pendant pearl earrings and a necklace with many pendant pearls. All the skirts are wide in the crinoline fashion. In the room is a floral painting on an easel, a tripod stand holding a round fish bowl, and a small blue bird, perched on the fish bowl.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges