Fashion Plate - Ladies and Children, late 1850s

Fashion plate, probably mid to late 1850s

This fashion plate, although undated, provides clues to its time period through the silhouettes of the women’s dresses. By the 1850s, skirts had widened to a bell shape achieved through cartridge pleating at the waist and supported by multiple petticoats, or possibly the new cage crinolines. All three women’s gowns have voluminous layered skirts, attesting to decreasing prices of fabrics in the Industrial Age. Bodices no longer have the V shape that characterized the 1840s. The figure in white shows a popular new sleeve style known as the pagoda sleeve. The two girls wear dresses with similar shapes as the adult women, except for their short skirts and pantalets.