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History
of the 1888 Reception Toilette and Notes on Late 1880s Fashions
The
1888 Reception Toilette pattern is taken from a 2-piece gray silk
faille dress with a white silk satin neck insert and trim of gold
braid. The dress was made by Rena B. Parfrey, an 18-year old from
Richland Center, Wisconsin, who wore it as a wedding gown for her
1888 marriage to James Keys.
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A fashionable outfit
for the middle class lady, The Ladies' Monthly Review, April
1888
The original
Directoire style, Journal des Dames, June 1792
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During the late 1880s most dress fashions had tight-fitting bodices
and sleeves, a long waist, a high collar, a large shelf-like bustle
worn protruding from the top of the derriere, a v-shaped waistline,
an asymmetrically-draped skirt, and a street-length hem. This look
combined with a high-crowned hat created a sense of height and
slimness with its vertical emphasis. Rena diverged from the
traditional draped dress when she made hers in the newly-fashionable
Directoire style.
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A
Wisconsin woman wearing the tight-fitting bodice and
draped skirt of the late 1880s.
Whi(V22)1468 |
In
late 1887 and early 1888 Sarah Bernhardt wore fashions from the
1790s, the Directoire period, while starring in the play
"Tosca." Within months of her debut, Paris designers
introduced a new dress style loosely based on the Directoire
fashions of 1790 to 1795. Women of the early 1790s also wore a
bustle, but their dresses were short-waisted and undraped with a low
decolletage filled in with a neckerchief. The fashion editor of Harper’s
Bazar described the 1888 version with:
"The
Directoire dress is flat as to the skirt, which is divested of
all drapery and even of the smallest of poufs; the corsage [bodice]
is cut on the lines of a Directoire coat, flat and plain, with
narrow sleeves almost tight to the arm; two very broad revers [lapels],
one crossing over the other, are on the upper part; [and] a
wide folded sash is around the waist."
The
editor did not mention that the neckerchief effect of the 1790s was
often created with a surplice bodice.
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The Directoire
style as defined in the 1880s, Harper's Bazar,
March 17, 1888
Right:
This
fashion illustration or the one above may have influenced Rena when she
designed her dress. The Ladies' Monthly Review and The Delineator,
September 1888 |
The
same editor added that she considered the original style
"peculiarly ugly and ungraceful." Her displeasure with the
style’s reappearance is evident when she gloated that though the
Directoire style was worn "by a certain number of fashionable
women" it was not finding favor with the majority. The real problem
with the Directoire style was its high waist. Low waists sitting almost
on the hips, usually with a deep v-waistline, had been in style for over
a decade and were considered flattering to all figures.
Designers and dressmakers resorted to artificially shortening the
Directoire dress’s waist by using a wide belt or sash, or horizontal
trim between the revers. Rena used the latter approach.
Other
fashion editors, like the one for Peterson’s Magazine, were
pleased to see the change in skirts brought about by the Directoire
style, since "we are rather weary of the many draperies--so
difficult to arrange gracefully and so hard to keep in order."
Later in the year, the same editor added that "the vast amount of
material in the draped dresses made them absolutely unhealthy to
wear."
Rena
may have been influenced by fashion magazines, since dresses similar to
hers appeared in the March 17, 1888 issue of Harper’s Bazar and
the September 1888 issue of The Delineator. Both these dresses
shared features seen in Rena’s dress, such as wide lapels, a surplice
bodice, horizontal trim at the bodice’s waist, smocking at the center
front of the skirt, and braid trim. Rena’s skirt is more draped at
back and over a larger bustle then most illustrated Directoire gowns.
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A typical
collapsible bustle from the late 1880s, Harper's Bazar,
February 4, 1888
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In 1888 the bustle’s heyday was coming to an end. It reached its
zenith in popularity and size in 1887, and then began shrinking. As
early as January 1888 Godey’s Lady’s Book wrote, "The
big bustle has departed, it is to be hoped never to return, for it is an
insult to the common sense of all women, and so absurdly open to
ridicule and caricature that one marvels how any woman can lend herself
to such distortion." Throughout the year fashion magazines
consistently reported that the bustle was growing smaller, but was not
yet discarded. In October Peterson’s Magazine wrote that
"a slight bend [at back] is necessary for real elegance--and
nothing is uglier than a perfectly flat dress." Rena appears to
have agreed with Peterson’s since she wore a fairly large
bustle with her dress. However, by the end of 1889, most women
considered all bustles out-of-date and unfashionable.
Left: A bustle
made of three to four spiral springs that folds up flat when the wearer
sits. It is very similar to the bustle in the 1888 Reception Toilette
pattern. The maker of the original homemade bustle may have been trying
to copy the one in this advertisement. Harper's Bazar, March 31,
1888
click on image for
larger version
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