The 1867 look: Floor length and voluminous
CANADIAN WOMEN’S fashions in 1867 were influenced by England, the United States and Paris.
Change that date to 1967, and the statement is still true.
Magazines from London, such as the “Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine,” included sketches of English and French styles.
Godey’s Lady’s Book began publication in the U.S. in 1830 and by 1867 was popular in Ontario homes. Home seamstresses and professional dressmakers could construct their own patterns, copying the book’s fashion plates.
Women’s clothes were floor length and voluminous.
The favourite outdoor garment was a shawl. This wasn’t a brief shoulder cover, but a generous garment that covered the wearer almost completely. It must have been a little like being wrapped in a rug.
PAISLEY PATTERNS, descendants of Kashmir shawls from India, were the most popular. There were cheaper shawls of wool. And in summer lighter materials were used. Black lace shawls for warm weather were being advertised in the Spectator that year. There were also advertisements of Paisley shawls. Bonnets were diminutive. Other feminine outdoor garments were loosefitting mantles, jackets or capes. A fashion plate from Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1866, which would still be in many Hamilton homes in 1867, shows collarless jackets fitting fairly snugly to the waist, then widening over the full skirts. The jackets came below hip length in front, and much lower at the back.
Harper’s Bazaar (then caller Bazar) began publication in November, 1867. A reprint of the first issue shows a mantelet, a jacket that was waist length in front, a little longer at the back, with “Grecian sleeves,” very loose and full, coming to a point well below knee level. It was to be made of “pearl grey ladies’ cloth, trimmed with black guipure lace.”
Bonnets were worn, not hats. The bonnet of 1867 was a diminutive affair, sitting on top of the head, and tied under the chin. It was often made of satin or lace, trimmed with artificial flowers, leaves, and veiling. The Spectator in 1867 was advertising the latest in English and French styles in bonnets.
An old print showing people skating on Burlington Bay in the 1800s portrays the women in long dresses and mantles or shawls, bonnets, and muffs.
Dresses, of course, were worn practically floor length. We hear of women spending entire evenings brushing and sponging mud-splattered wool skirts.
This was a period of transition in women’s fashion. Tremendous hoop crinolines were going out of fashion, although no doubt many would be used for formal events at the time of Confederation. Crinolines were becoming narrower, and the dresses were flattening in front.
THE SPECTATOR in 1867 was advertising such fabrics as prints, and printed muslins, cottons and linens, and ladies’ skirtings. The ribbon and lace department of one store had ladies’ collars and cuffs. We know wool was used, some of it carded, spun and woven locally. Silk, taffeta, voile, calico, and velvet were available here.
Under such dresses, a woman wore a chemise, of white cotton or linen, a straight cut garment. It was worn next to the skin. In 1867 it usually had gathered sleeves and a gusseted front.
Tightly-laced corsets accounted for the fantastic hourglass measurements of that era. A cotton underbodice would be worn over the corset.
Drawers were full, with gathered cuffs, often lace-trimmed.
Crinolines would have hoops from the knees down. A woman usually wore several petticoats.
Women’s shoes for everyday wear were high and laced, with low heals. Some laced up the inner side. They were usually soft kid, but satin shoes were worn for formal occasions.
A Hamilton woman in 1867, if she did her own housework, would start off with a morning dress or wrapper, floor length, worn without hoops but with one or two starched petticoats. The dress would be very simply styled, with perhaps a frill or two at the hem.
The morning dress often had a fichu or soft white scarf draped around the shoulders and knotted in front. A matching cap was worn on the hair, to protect it from dust and food odours.
A BIG WHITE apron would be worn over the dress while the woman did most household jobs, such as baking, sweeping or dusting.
After the noonday dishes were washed, a woman would “dress up” in a dress just a little more elaborate. It might be dotted swiss or voile, instead of print or calico, and would have a low hoop, that would result in a bell-shaped silhouette.
Ready to receive guests at afternoon tea, a young woman would also wear a little lace cap and a small, dainty apron.
An older woman, in the afternoon, would wear a darker dress, perhaps black satin or maroon taffeta, with a little black silk apron, a black lace cap. Mourning directed fashion. Ball gowns were very full-skirted, worn over big crinolines, with short sleeves, usually puffed, and much trimming.
Women’s dress was greatly affected by the custom of mourning, something that has almost died out now.
A widow wore mourning (black) for two years. The first year it had to be lustreless black. The second year, she could wear black silk, and toward the end of the year, she could venture into grey, violet and white.
During deep mourning, as the lustreless black era was termed, a widow would wear a bonnet of black crepe, no jewelry and no pins or buckles except jet, and no kid gloves.
OFTEN A WOMAN who was elderly when widowed wore mourning clothes for the rest of her life.
Prices of that day sound ridiculously low, but salaries were on the same scale.