Poison or Protect follows the exploits of one lady assassin with a penchant for poison, one gentle soldier with a white knight complex, a house party, a ghost, and... the changing fashions of 1867.
No really, the diminishing nature of full skirts is a plot point. I roll like that. Even so, I can't go all over with the info-dumping in the story itself, although I hope I've made the point as needed, so I thought I'd give you a glimpse at what I mean in further detail.
So here you have a peek at the evolving nature of skirts in the 1860s. I've chosen to give both fashion plates and actual dresses as this is as close as I can get to runway versus real way style of blog.
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| Fashion plate, 1860 V&A Museum no. E.267-1942 |
At the beginning of the 1860s dress skirts were very wide
indeed, notably assisted by the cage crinoline. "The steel-hooped cage crinoline, first patented in April 1856
by R.C. Milliet in Paris, and by their agent in Britain a few months
later, became extremely popular." (
source)
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| 1860 The Victoria & Albert Museum |
By the end of the 1850s, the cage was hugely popular with the fashionable set
as it allowed one to wear (slightly) fewer petticoats. Note, however, that
it was the height of vulgarity to see evidence of the cage in terms of
steel rings or tapes (like
VPL), so one did still require several petticoats over
the crinoline to hide these. A ruffle was often sewn on the bottom,
which could be replaced with a different color to match the over-skirt.
Also the cage caused ladies to be vested in the need for longer underpinnings, should
the cage swing too far when dancing. Hence the brief fad for
pantalettes.
And now for the retrospective: 1860-1869
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| Emile Pingat, 1860 The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| “Spring Pardessus, No. 2”, fashion plate from Harper’s Monthly Magazine, 1861 |
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| Evening Dress Charles Fredrick Worth, 1861 The Chicago History Museum |
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| 1862 The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
As you can see, the early 1860s were very wide full skirts. But right around the middle the century they began to shift toward the back into a train...
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| Cage Crinoline 1862 The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| 1863 The McCord Museum |
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| 1864 The Kyoto Costume Institute |
1865 Dresses from the The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Les Modes Parisiennes
Date: Sunday, January 1, 1865
Item ID: v. 44, plate 64 |
Note how the skirts are sliding more and more towards the back by this point? At the same time they become more narrow. An advanced oval form of the cage crinoline was quite popular at this point, but a lady was also permitted to wear layers of petticoats cleverly cut instead. A discussion on this matter occurs in
Poison or Protect, key to understanding of Preshea's character.
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| 1866 Musée Galliera de la Mode de la Ville de Paris |
Robe à Transformation 1867 Collection Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti1
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| Dinner Dress Emile Pingat, 1868 The Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| 1869_Englishwomans_Domestic_Magazine |
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| 1869 Collection Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti |
And so the style leads into the 1870s tighter bustle silhouette, as described in
the Parasol Protectorate series.
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| Cage Crinolette 1872-1875 The Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
Want more on these spcific transition styles?
Retro Rack is also on
facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.
You can also visit the following shopping lists:
Travel Dork,
My Steampunk,
My Wardrobe.
