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Left: Court Dress. A short point lace overdress in pattern of roses, thistle, and shamrock, tops a heavily trimmed blue satin petticoat. The blue satin petticoat has silver lame and foil trims on ever side of a band of white and pale blue roses. The robe is of blue, and the back corsetted. A profusion of ostrich plumes droop over a pearl bandeau.
Right: Evening Dress. Black silk roses and leaves form two large bands around the hem of this dress of white crinkled silk spotted with white satin. The bodice of the dress is fake black velvet. The lady wears a wreath of white flowers in her dark hair. We can imagine how striking this black and white dress appeared at an evening musical. The lady holds her music, ready to approach her instrument to perform. Perhaps she plays the pianaforte, like Elizabeth Bennet and Georgiana Darcy in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, 1813. Or she could play the harp, like Juliet in Frances Burney's The Wanderer, 1814.
Cottage Dress. Part of the vogue for the simple life, this dress is supposed to be rustic! The fancy trim of the peach satin ribbon on the "apron," however, points out the complete impracticality of such a gown for real work. The lady here is flirting with gardening, in her gown with "peasant's apron." The abundance of peach satin trim on the hat and gown and the precise care with which the peach hankerchief is "carelessly" tied around the neck are clues that this is the height of fashion and not a dress for real work.
To Return to Ackermann's Repository Fashions