Day-Dress Jacket and Skirt
1879-1889
Scroll
Day-Dress Jacket and Skirt
1879-1889
Physical Qualities
Silk, wool, metallic buttons, a: 47 x 45 in. (119.4 x 114.3 cm.)
b: 40 in. (101.6 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Merry Gladding Highby, Baltimore, MD
Object Number
2009.147a-b
The high collar, tapered sleeves, fitted waist, and extended back of this day dress created the desired silhouette for late 19th century high fashion. Outfitted in this ensemble of voided velvet ornamented with elaborate metal buttons, boxed pleats, and appliqué, a woman would appear elegant and in control. However, her movement would be restricted and her health imperiled by the undergarments required, including a corset to cinch in her waist (to 22”) and a bustle to support the weight of voluminous folds at the back of her skirt. Such concerns would lead to reform in clothing design aimed at freeing women from constrictive fashions.
Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2009; Merry Gladding Highby, Baltimore, MD by descent; Gladding family by descent; Olivia Ward Gladding.
Curator's Choice Rotation
Otto Thieme et. al., With Grace & Favour: Victorian & Edwardian Fashion in America, Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1993, plate 26.
Herbert Norris and Oswald Curtis, Nineteenth-Century Costume and Fashion, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., 1998. Republication of 1933 by D.P. Dutton and Co., Inc. New York, Costume and Fashion, Volume Six: the Nineteenth Century.pp. 212-221, esp. fig. 181, p. 219 and fig. 182, p. 220.
Jane E. Starnes, The Gilded Cage: Victorian Bustle Fashion 1867-1889, Charlotte, N.C.: Mint Museum of Art, 1992, p. 14, illustration afternoon dress, c. 1885; p. 15-16, p. 23; p. 25 illustration of photograph very similar dress of similar materials dated 1886.
"French flocked velvet bustle gown, 1880s." Vintage Textile. N.p., 4 2010. Web. 4 May 2010.
Herbert Norris and Oswald Curtis, Nineteenth-Century Costume and Fashion, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., 1998. Republication of 1933 by D.P. Dutton and Co., Inc. New York, Costume and Fashion, Volume Six: the Nineteenth Century.pp. 212-221, esp. fig. 181, p. 219 and fig. 182, p. 220.
Jane E. Starnes, The Gilded Cage: Victorian Bustle Fashion 1867-1889, Charlotte, N.C.: Mint Museum of Art, 1992, p. 14, illustration afternoon dress, c. 1885; p. 15-16, p. 23; p. 25 illustration of photograph very similar dress of similar materials dated 1886.
"French flocked velvet bustle gown, 1880s." Vintage Textile. N.p., 4 2010. Web. 4 May 2010.
