1888 Tan silk satin dress
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1885-1889 A tan silk satin dress, trimmed with light brown velvet.
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View of the other side of the dress
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The dress from the side
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The back of the dress
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Detail of the bodice at the front neck
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Detail of the tail at the back waist of the bodice
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The watch pocket inside the right front edge
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Detail of the neck showing the hooks on the edge of the right front and the worked eyelets on the centre front panel. At the top left of the image another hook can be seen on the base of the collar (folded back) to attach to the worked loop at the top of the centre panel.
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The label on the inside waistband at the centre back
Description
The bodice and skirt are separate.
The bodice and sleeves are lined with fawn cotton sateen; there are bones on the darts, and the side and side back seams, and the inside waistband is 1¼" wide with two hooks and eyes.
It opens down the right side of the centre front panel, with 18 hooks down the edge of the side panel, for 12 worked eyelets down edge of the centre front panel, four worked bars, and two eyes at waist, the lowest of those is oversewn. A small watch pocket made of the satin is sewn inside, 1" in from the right front edge and 6¼" down from the top.
The centre front panel is gathered into the neck edge and pleated for the last 6" into a point at the waist. Velvet lapels on the edge of the side panels are 2½" wide at top, narrowing to ⅜", and meeting at the base of the centre front panel, 2" above the pointed waist. The velvet stand collar is 1⅞" high, with satin round the inside showing as wings at the front edges; it is fastened with a hook and worked bar. Ivory silk faille ribbon, 1⅛" wide, also goes round inside, with ³⁄₁₆" showing at the top; the ends are loose at the front, 9" long on the right and 8" on the left, to tie as bow.
The lower edge of the bodice is double piped; the centre back panels are extended as pointed lobes, over three more lobes, getting larger, and alternating in velvet, satin and velvet as a tail.
The top sleeve panels are gathered at the elbows, and the ends have 2¾" wide velvet turned back cuffs with ivory ribbon round the inside, ¼" showing on the ends.
The skirt is lined with light brown sateen. Two steels in channels going round in the back of the lining, 8" down from waist and 5½" lower, have tapes at each end, which when tied together hold the skirt out, as a separate bustle cage would do. .
The 1¼" wide skirt waistband has three hooks and eyes, 1½" apart, along it, and the opening is 2" to the left of the centre back. There are deep pleats round the back of the skirt, and deep horizontal pleats, 3" to the left of the centre front, 2½" down from waist, to form an apron drape; pleated up under the puff at the right side. The fullness at the back is stitched to the lining in six places so that it forms puffs.
4" wide box-pleats of 10" deep satin, are sewn round the hem of the lining; they are light brown at the front and tan at the back.
Contemporary illustrations
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Detail from Myra's Autumn Panorama of Paris Patterns and Modes, November 1886
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Fashion plate in Revue de la Mode, 1886
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Unknown woman, c.1886
History
The dress was made by Gainsford & Co, Borough High Street, London; their label is printed at the centre back of the inside waistband.
It belonged to belonged to Rose Wood, whose family lived in Crockenhill, Kent.