More Mid Nineteenth Century Dress

12 tintypes from the same album...

 The earliest tintype in the collection.  I haven't seen an example of a neckline like this before, but the shoulder seams, general line of the dress and hairstyle are from the early 1860s.  The sleeves appear to be pagoda sleeves, they don't have a cuff and you can see quite a bit of the undersleeve peeking out.  The dent in her right shoulder is a white bow that is tied at the base of ther neck.  Though impossible to tell in the scan, the original shows a ridge on the back of her head, possibly a decorative hairnet.  There's a sprig of flowers coming out of her hair on her left side. She wears rather large drop earrings.  

  The skirt on this dress is held out by a hoop in front, as well as a bustle in back, showing the transition between the two styles.  

  I love the details on this dress, the buttons, lace, fabric changes.  It's a good example of how the sewing machine helped make dresses more decorative.

  This bodice is very similar to a dress in Jane Ashelford's The Art of Dress, dated 1875 (page 226).  The bodice is extremely tight.  I enjoy seeing details like the waistline creases, they show that dresses weren't always perfect. :)

  This dress is very reminiscent of the Jersey costume popularized by Lilly Langtry in the late 1870s.  You can see the ridge created by the edges of her corset easily. 

  A similar tight bodice to the picture above...

 The most striking feature of this dress is the collar. The dress below the collar consists of a perfectly fitting smooth bodice with a skirt with the fullness pulled towards the back.

 Another example of a tight, smooth bodice.  Unlike the above examples, this dress has a rather large bustle in back (obvious in orginal).  The skirt is draped smoothly over the bustle with no ruffles.

I have to admit, the only thing I really know about men's clothing is that they wore clothing.  Still, the pictures are interesting.

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