A Guide to 1860's Fashion

When it comes to 1860's fashion, it was all about the skirts. At that point in time, the use of petticoats and crinolines had taken skirts to their very widest point in history. When you think about 1860's fashion, you probably think about women like legendary literary character Scarlett O'Hara, with their waist cinching corsets and massive hoop skirts.

And you'd be right – in many parts of the world, that's how it was. However, there were different kinds of dress for day and night. During the day, sophisticated ladies sported dresses with wide, flowing sleeves worn on top of garments called undersleeves. Lots of lace and conservative high necklines were the uniform of choice for society ladies.

Evening wear consisted of the same hoop skirts, however the dress sleeves were shorter and the necklines were much lower. Fabrics for day and evening consisted of cotton, satin, and silk. Often, these fabrics were layered as the underskirt trend came into fashion. This involved the display of colorful skirts underneath of overskirts that were pulled to the sides, almost like curtains. Gloves were definitely in fashion during the 1860's. Women's hands were adorned with delicate lace gloves or, for evening, gloves that were fingerless. Other accessories that were definitely part of the fashion world were hats, with wide brimmed bonnets being the headwear of choice.

In some circles, however, hoop skirts weren't the fashion of choice. The Artistic Dress movement rejected the idea of restrictive hoop skirts and stifling corsets and instead focused on natural waist dresses.

Color came into play in the later half of the 1860's, with shades that had not been seen in fashion before making an appearance. Red, royal blue and bright pink showed up in the dresses of the 1860's, and were a major departure from the plain, natural shades of the previous decade.

One thing is for sure, 1860's fashion was all about letting women be women. Women in slacks? Never. The closest women came to trousers of any kind were the pataloons and pantalets they wore underneath their hoop skirts and crinolines. This period in time was all about women accentuating their feminine curves, to the extreme. As the 1860's ended, so did the use of stifling corsets and huge crinolines. The end of the decade ushered in a new era of fashion, offering more comfort and style than ever before.

Copyright 2006 Jim Sterling - All Rights Reserved

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