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Romantic Era Clothing
This is an excerpt from the article The Evolution of Female Fashion By Sarah LeCount; from Old Sturbridge Visitor, Spring, 1994; pp. 4-6
During the 1820s neo-classical clothing, which in its delicate and flimsy nature was somewhat impractical (like the fragile, shield-back neo-classical chairs of the era), went through a transformation. Gradually, fabrics became more substantial, skirts gained fullness, and waistlines dropped. By the 1830s very different fashion ideas in clothing and furniture and architecture-had taken hold. They would persist, with minor variations, through the decade.
Clothing styles moved toward greater restriction and concealment of the female form. By the 1830s, rounded skirts gained fullness controlled with either pleats or gathers at the waist--which continued to fall toward the natural waistline.
Bodices were tightly fitted over stays that were once again hip-length but made with very little boning. They were thus more restrictive than the style "a la greque" but less rigid than those of the eighteenth century. With this style, sleeves were set into the bodice at a more natural location than in the 1790s, which allowed the shoulder line to become rounded. The sleeves themselves ballooned in size; fullness either started at the shoulder or was pleated into the shoulder and released to its full width between shoulder and elbow. Flat slippers remained in fashion, but women returned to wearing their hair long, styled in elaborate braids and curls high on the head. In addition, surviving clothing from this period shows an unprecedented variety of colors and prints, as a result of expanded factory production and printing of textiles in America and England.
The general impression of 1830s high-style dress clothing for women is feminine, romantic, and very rounded. With large sleeves extending from rounded shoulders and a full, round skirt, the waist looked small. Printed fashion plates of the period illustrate tiny, demure women in gowns that accentuated their doll-like appearance. The daughters of Sally and Salem Towne Jr. probably looked like this in their most fashionable clothing. Wearing stays and multiple petticoats under their fitted gowns reinforced the lady-like demure movements considered appropriate for girls of their status.
The transition in high fashion from long, narrow, draping, and figure-revealing neo-classical gowns that emulated Greek goddesses to rounded, enveloping, 1830s gowns reflected the growing power of romantic style. The art, poetry, and literature of the period--and more gradually furniture and architectural design--emphasized emotion and imagination over the logic and and sensibility of the neo-classical style.
Also, the idealized image of modest, delicate females that the 1830s style projected fit neatly with the increasingly important cultural emphasis on women's role as moral guardians of the home.
Everyday clothing followed the stylistic trends of high fashion. In the 1830s work dresses, like fancy gowns, were made with long puffy sleeves and relatively full skirts. Middle-aged women might remember wearing dresses with high waists and narrow skirts during their school days, while mature women may have memories of a time when for work and play they wore tightly fitted gowns. over highly boned stays. Stylish or not, clothing is an important cultural statement of any era.
If you go to Our Romantic Era Closet, you will find explanation and fashion plates of some women's fashion suring the Romantic era.
References:
Janet Arnold, _Patterns of Fashion I: Englishwomen's Dresses and Their Construction 1660-1860._ New York: Drama Book, 1977 (4th ed.).
Stella Blum, ed., _Ackermann's Costume Plates: Women's Fashions in England, 1818-1828._ New York; Dover, 1978 (first pub. 1818-1828).
C. Willett Cunnington, _English Women's Clothing in the Nineteenth Century._ New York: Dover- 1990 (first pub. 1937)
Judith M. Johnson, ed., _French Fashion Plates of the Romantic Era._ New York: Dover, 1991 (first pub. 1830-1834).
Meredith Wight, _Everyday Dress of Rural America, 1783-1800, With Instructions and Patterns._ New York: Dover, 1992 (first pub. 1990).
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