oldrags:

Western fashions for women and children drawn by Yoshu Chikanobu, date missing (ca 1870’s?)

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Fond Memories by Raimondo Madrazo, date missing (ca 1870’s?)

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Portrait photo of a mother and her kids, 1870’s Australia

why the fuck do none of my dresses have umbrella pockets? bringing it back. bringing it back so hard.

oldrags:

Visiting dress, ca 1873

Aaaa look at the cute pocket!

stunning!

oldrags:

Dress by Mon Vignon, ca 1869-70 France

Many of you have probably seen this dress but I wanted to add an interesting little fact about it that you may not know.

What color would you say the fabric is?  Purple?  Actually, it’s mauve as it was meant to look.  The first synthetic dye, mauveine, was discovered by accident in 1856 when an 18-year-old student was trying to find a cure for malaria.  Being the first of its kind, there were problems with the dye that caused the color to fade relatively quickly.  This is why our modern idea of the color mauve is sort of a faded grayish-purple.  Examples that have faded little do exist, though, as seen here.

oldrags:

Fashion plate, 1879

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Trousseau dress, 1878 US, the Wadsworth Atheneum

A trousseau dress is an alternative dress worn by the bride in the days after her wedding.  As you can tell from this one, they were nice but not too elaborate.  Reception or “second-day” fit into this category.

oldrags:

Theatrical boots, ca 1870, Oakland Museum of California

that bodice ack

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Evening dress by Worth, 1875

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À la toilette by Gustave Léonard de Jonghe, ca 1880