Figure 1.--This unidentified girl was photographed in thev 1850s. It is a tinted lalg plate Daguerreotype by Jeremiah Gurney. She is dressed just like an adult women, except with a small number of crinolines. She is seated at a small table with light blue tinting. The chair might have a slight hint of original red tinting as well. She's wearing lace gloves, a painted necklace and a dress with several pieces of painted accents. Mat is stamped: 'J. GURNEY 349 BROADWAY'.

There was one fashionable silhouette that dominated the 1850s. It was a well defined narrow waist, drooping shoulders, and a huge expansive skirt that only grew in size through the decade. The problem with this was that it was mostly young women just out of their teens that could easily manage that narrow waist. For many women this meant having to fit into constrictive whalebone corsets. How different this was from the Empire dresses that began the free flowing 19th century. The dress skirt it self was a characteristic dome-shaped skirt with its fullness carefully distributed. The expansive skirt was not just a shell. It was usually well supported by multiple petticoats worn underneath. The number was up to the woman, but up to seven was no uncommon. Of course here we are talking about fashionable ladies. At least to offer real support, one of the petticoats was usually a crinoline This was a petticoat that was stiffened with horsehair. Then to make it easier to achieve the some affect. Someone invented the cage crinoline (1856). This involved a series of concentric steel hoops. It proved popular because freed the fashionable lady from the many heavy and layer of petticoats. And at the same time, a dress skirt could reach greater proportions which we see in the late-1850s and early-60s. The cage crinoline was widely worn and not just by the fashionable elite, although working-class women were less involved, in part because a woman could not do much when wearing one. But fashionable women did not work. Girls of course did not normally wear the cage crinoline. But the basic style of dress was the same. There were by mid-century distinctive styles for boys, This was less true for girls. Amelia Bloomer was a women's rights reformer. Her most influential work would be in clothing reform. After noticing the restrictive nature of corsets and dresses, Bloomer promoted the idea of women to adopting a new style of dress. The pantaloons, now called bloomers, were a shift from accepted skirted fashions dress for women. Her bloomers were the subject of ridicule from most men and women. She made a splash with her bloomers, but very few girls actually wore them--except in gym classes in the later part of the century.

Created: 7:45 PM 1/9/2023
Last updated: 7:46 PM 1/9/2023