1874 Bustled Dinner Gown Pattern, Sizes 8-12

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Package includes patterns for a BODICE, SKIRT, and OVERSKIRT. This dress should be worn with the PH1873B Bustle. The pattern has many of the typical features of an early 1870s dress including a tight-fitting, short-waisted bodice with peplum and coat sleeves, a bustled apron-style overskirt, and a skirt with straight front and full back. The Dinner Gown pattern is taken from a three-piece bright blue silk faille dress which has dark blue velveteen and white silk satin trim. Ida Louise Ela, an 18-year-old from a prominent Rochester, Wisconsin family, probably wore the original dress at the time of her older sister's marriage in February of 1874. According to period fashion magazines, Ida's dress has the correct silhouette and fabrics. However, compared to most fashion illustrations, she trimmed it conservatively, so that its plain skirts lack the flounces and ruffles of more stylish outfits. Interestingly, in November 1873 Godey's Magazine wrote that new dress skirts should not "be too elaborately trimmed, as the wheel of fashion is turning towards simpler styles. True elegance will be looked for in the perfection of cut, rather than in a profusion of ornaments." Yet few of their fashion illustrations ever matched Ida's plainness of decoration. The original bright blue silk fabric with white satin and blue velveteen trim from Ida's bustled dinner gown. Ida's vivid bright blue dress would have been considered a bit unusual at the time. Peterson's Magazine wrote that the best colors should be "dark but faded" and that deep, full colors looked "raw and vulgar." Most of the colors listed in Harper's Bazar and Peterson's were soft subdued shades such as smoke gray, chestnut, and pale rose. Chemical dyes that could produce vibrant, intense colors had been invented in the previous decade. Generally they were deemed too striking for mature women, but adolescent girls like Ida may have considered the colors fun and beautiful.