During the '40's, the waist dropped on some bodices
to slightly below the natural waistline. The point of the bodice
lengthened and was often emphasised by gathers. The sleeve did
not remain plain and tight for long and by the late '40's the
wrist began to open and expand into the pagoda sleeve that would
endure until the early 1870s in one form or another. Open ended
sleeves required undersleeves or engageantes for modesty. The
skirt continued to expand during the 1840's and the skirt of 1845
is noticeably wider than that of 1835. Like the sleeve, it did
not remain plain for the whole decade but began to be decorated
with a shorter overskirt or by flounces. These helped to add width.
The jacket bodice developed during
the 1840s as an alternative style for day wear. It gave
a slightly more masculine and authoritative air and
was often tempered by a very feminine blouse underneath,
filling in the neckline and the sleeve ends. (In years
to come, the blouse would emerge as a bodice in its
own right). By 1850, the jacket bodice had become popular.
Worn over a flounced skirt, it added another layer to
the flounces. The alternative dress bodice style was
long, pointed and usually with gathers in front, drawn
from the shoulders down to the point, in a fan-shape.
Sometimes this fan-front was made separatly and applied
to an otherwise plain bodice. Not all bodices of the
late 1840s were joined to their skirts. Certainly jacket
bodices could not be; and thus two-piece dresses came
into fashion, though usually matching if they were not
a jacket costume.
The separate bodice and skirt allowed matching day and
evening bodices to be made for the same skirt, thus
saving on the most costly item of the dress - the voluminous
skirt.
Evening bodices throughout the '40's,
whether joined to the skirt or not, were made with short
tight sleeves and a very low decolletage that defied the
fashion for demureness during the day. During the early
'30's, not all evening dress decolletage had been quite
so revealing and 1830's short evening sleeves had been
full puffs a continuation of the preceding Regency style.
Long sleeves could also be worn on some dinner dresses
but not for full ball dress.
The low evening bodice neckline was usually trimmed with
a lace or matching fabric bertha collar. This was a favourite
style of collar even for plain, high-necked, day bodices
by the '40's and made in matching dress fabric was applied
to the outside. Bertha collars could be plain, pleated
or gathered. The wide pelerines of the 1830's were no
longer worn with these styles, though some dresses of
the 1840's still had a separate matching capelet.
The corset once again came into prominence
during the early Victorian period. A small waist was important
during the 1830s, and during the '40s when the waistline
lengthened, it was more so. Corsets were therefore indispensable
for fashionable women. The corset of the 1830s was very
much like that of the early nineteenth century, i.e. quite
long, with a long wooden front busk to flatten the stomach
and shoulder straps to keep the garment from sliding down.
This helped to maintain the bust at a high level. It fastened
with lacing up the back only. During the '30s, the front
clasp/busk was introduced, allowing the corset to be fastened
at the front and further laced up the back, to get a tiny
waist if necessary. The shoulder straps also disappeared
as waists grew tighter. Many less fashionable women must
have continued to wear the old-fashioned style for a lot
longer.
The very
plain style of dress of the early 40s did not remain for
long. As the sleeve became fuller again, albeit at the opposite
end, the bodice more decorated and the skirt flounced, fashion
by 1850, clearly favoured decoration once more. Dress and
its decoration are a method of self expression and decoration
would continue to feature strongly in Victorian fashion.
But the woman of 1850, with her voluminous skirts hampering
her gait, her corseted figure, her bodice with restrictive
armholes and her close bonnet that obstructed her view,
was very much a passive and well-behaved creature by necessity.
"The basquine or jacket we now give is suitable for
almost any material, except velvet, but especially for silk
or Satin"
The front is made with plaits; and the dimensions in the
engraving are suitable for a rather long waist. The basque
is cut into deep scallops, on every alternate one of which
a false lappet is laid, plaited in at the top and finished
with bows and ends. Each lappet is trimmed round with silk
braid, or narrow ribbon velvet, and lace. The basque is
finished to match."
"The lower part of the sleeve exactly resembles this
and is set full into the upper part, which is slashed to
show a full white muslin sleeve, which forms puffs. In a
delaine or muslin dress, the puffings may be of the same
material."
"The upper part of the shoulder, round the
neck, has lappets similar to the basque and sleeve, which give
something of the appearance of a collar."
"This very comfortable jacket is made of cloth, trimmed with
velvet of the same colour or black, which is generally appropriate
for the garniture of any colour. The jacket, like very many dresses
of the present, is made with a small cape, trimmed with narrow
rows of velvet ribbon of the same colour as the rest of the velvet.
This cape is trimmed with fringe. Of the double sleeve, the upper
one is cut up the centre, nearly to the shoulder and finished
with buttons and tassels. The under sleeve has a puffing, confined
by bands of velvet and a deep frill, trimmed with velvet, scalloped
to correspond with that of the jacket."
"Two hints we will venture to give to such of our friends
as work from our models. Always make a jacket of this sort large
enough to go over any dress body. It will be far more useful;
and cloth is a substance which does not look untidy if it does
not fit quite closely to the figure."
"Also, if you wad or pad any part, quilt the wadding on dimet
[sic], before laying it in the cloth - the dimet, not the wadding,
going next to the cloth. Unless this is done, the fluff will work
its way through the finest and closest cloth, or even through
velvet and will give both materials a dusty look that is by no
means ornamental."
