Romantic Era Fashion Chit Chat - January 1837 Lady's Pocket Magazine

Romantic Era Fashion Chit Chat - January 1837 Lady's Pocket Magazine

Remarks on the Prevailing London Fashions

We see, in plain walking-dress, a good many cloaks composed of merinos of either full or sombre hues, and trimmed with velvet to correspond. Their form does not afford any novelty. We notice them merely to recommend them to our fair readers, as being, perhaps, better calculated than any other kind of mantle for the streets of London.

Velvet and satin are the materials most in request for promenade bonnets; black ones begin to be very much in vogue. We see also a good many coloured satin ones, trimmed with black velvet. Generally speaking, the trimmings of promenade bonnets are of a simple kind; they consist either of ribbon or velvet. We see, with pleasure, that feathers and flowers, both so ill calculated for exposure to the humidity of the air, as well as the smoke of our metropolis, are but little adopted in walking-dress, with the exception, however, of some small flowers, that are frequently intermingled with blond lace, which is used to trim the interior of the brim in the cap stile. The brims of bonnets are worn deep and very long at the sides.

Let us now take a glance at the numerous novelties in preparation for carriage dress. We may cite in the foremost rank, a revived fashion - how far it will become a general one we cannot pretend to say - we mean cloth dresses and pelisses for ladies; both were very much in vogue about five and twenty years ago. We have seen one of each ordered by a lady of high rank. The pelisse made extremely ample, with a light corsage and sleeves demi large, was composed of very fine lady's cloth, of an extremely soft and light kind. The colour was a rich golden shade of brown; it was lined with gros de Naples of the same hue, but a shade lighter; it was open in front, and trimmed round with a rouleau of sable, which also encircled the square falling collar and the bottoms of the sleeves. The dress made with a high and tight corsage, fitting exactly to the shape, and a little pointed at the bottom of the waist, is fastened behind by fancy silk buttons, and ornamented in front in the stomacher stile, with a row of buttons on each side. The sleeve is made to fit the arm at the lower part, and on the shoulder, but bouffanted in three places in the centre. We should observe that the dress was of the same kind of cloth as the pelisse, but of a bright ruby colour, and the buttons, its only ornaments, the prettiest we have seen.

Black velvet is now very much in request for half-dress hats and bonnets. Those of satin, trimmed with rep velvet, are, however, more in vogue. We may cite, among the prettiest, some drawn bonnets, or rather, we should say, bonnets with the brims drawn, of a large size, and the casings put pretty close together. The crown, set in something like the caul of a morning cap, and high, is trimmed with a piece of rep velvet, which forms a point that a little surmounts it; coques of ribbon, from one of which a light sprig of flowers issues, complete the trimming. Velvet flowers are very much in request for satin hats, but not so much so as feathers; a single feather, either white or coloured, with a moderate quantity of ribbon, is a favourite stile of trimming for all but morning bonnets; they are usually ornamented with ribbon only.

The materials of everning-dress robes are of those rich kinds that we have mentioned in our late numbers - brocade, damask, velvet, and satin. The last will always enjoy a certain degree of favour, though not near so much as the three first mentioned. A good many corsages are made a la Sevigne, that is pointed at the bttom; they are all cut low, but not indelicately so, and the draped and plain ones seem in equal favour. Sleeves are all short, some made tight, but covered with ruches of tulle, which gave them a moderate degree of fulness, and had a singularly pretty effect. Others are arranged in two or three bouillons, for they are not large enough to admit of our calling them bouffants, each being formed by a band and bow of ribbon. We see also a good many quite tight, terminated by blond manchettes.

Blond lace is the material most in request for trimming the robes above described. A good many are trimmed with deep flounces, headed by spiral wreaths of ribbon. Others have a single flounce disposed in drapery, and the points marked by knots of ribbon.

A novelty has appeared in blond mantillas, and also in manchettes, which appears very likely to gain ground; they are now made with very little fulness; in fact, they are a sort of juste milieu between the full mantilla of former years, and the flat pelerine-mantilla that has been lately in favour. The manchettes of the same kind are arhced so as to produce a graceful fall round the arm without much fullness.

Caps will this winter be the favourite head-dresses for social parties, and turbans for grand ones. The first have now the cauls higher, and the fronts also deeper, and more expanded than they have been lately made. A good many are trimmed with a mixture of velvet and flowers. Other that have the caul ornamented with velvet partly disposed in drpaery, and partly in coques, have the flowers disposed in a wreath across the forehead. Blond or tulle lappets, which float loosely, are very generally adopted instead of ribbon brides for caps. Turbans offer nothing absolutely new in form; they are principally distinguished by the richness or the lightness of their materials. We may cite among the first those that offer a mixture of gold or silver gauze with velvet, the ends of the gauze falling in graceful draperies fringed with gold or silver. Those of white gaze acrienne, or tulle illusion, are pre-eminent among the latter; nothing, indeed, can exceed the lightness of their graceful and becoming folds. Fashionable colours are fawn, slate, lavender, and other shades of grey; various full shades of red, particularly red currant colour; marron, violet, and dark green; pink, blue, and other light hues are adopted in evening-dress.