Fashion Plates of Evening Dress

Evening Dress, Full Mourning, 1818, from Rudolf Ackermann's The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashion, and Politics, 1809-1829. I love this Gothic image of the greiving lady. Her veil and cross echoes the clothing of the heroines of the Gothic novels popular at this time. The jewelery and beading on the dress are of jet. Two rows of black roses band the bottom of the skirt.

Evening Dress, 1819 from Rudolf Ackermann's The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashion, and Politics, 1809-1829. This image reminds me of all the harp-playing heroines of the 1775-1820 period. Frances Burney's Ellis or Juliet of The Wanderer, 1814, even gives harp lessons. The dress below can be seen in color in Doris Langley Moore's The Gallery of Fashion 1790-1822 from Plates by Heideloff and Ackermann with Introduction by Sacheverell Sitwell and Notes on the Plates by Doris Langley Moore (Batsford Colour Books. London: B.T. Batsford, 1949). Moore describes the dress thus: "Evening dress of gossamer satin, body and Spanish slashed sleeves of pink satin, cap with rosebuds ... An evening or musical party full dress of gossamer satin, with festoooned trimming, bordered with rouleaux of rose-pink satin. Body and Spanish slashed sleeves of pink satin. Cap ornamented with rosebuds" (12).