Walking Dress – Summer 1830

Two women and a boy wearing walking dress standing out of doors on a grassy lawn. The woman on the left wears an ankle length pink and white vertically striped dress with a flower motif running through the white stripes. The dress has a wide falling collar with a pink bow and a double row of white ruffles at the jewel neckline. The dress has dropped shoulders, wide gigot or leg o’ mutton sleeves, and white ruffled cuffs.

The skirt has a double band of flounces with zigzagged edges at about knee height. She wears an elaborate wide brimmed white hat trimmed with pink and green wide ribbons and bows, decorated with greenery. She wears yellow gloves, a wide gold bracelet, black shoes, and a square gold quizzing glass on a long chain around her neck. A quizzing glass is a single eyeglass usually set in a decorative brooch style setting worn on a ribbon or chain.

The dark-haired woman next to her wears an ankle length yellow dress trimmed with rows with bows down the center of the skirt and on the tight-fitting lower sleeves. The collar is a stiffened triple ruff of white. She wears a wide brimmed pink hat ornamented with pink and white striped ribbon, roses, sprays of berries and leaves, and has ties of transparent pink. She wears long gold tear-drop earrings, gray gloves, and yellow shoes.

Urging his mother to come look at something is a young boy in a blue frock coat with leg o’ mutton sleeves, belted with a wide black belt and large silver buckle in back. A white ruffled collar is visible above the coat collar, and he has long blond hair in ringlets. He wears a blue flat crowned hat with a short bill and a tassel on top, white trousers, and black shoes.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges