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Some thoughts on the style of
American dress in the mid-19th century.

Dress—As A Fine Art
Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine, 1854


Dress of American Women

 Apropos of Godey’s Dress-Making publications, we find the following remarks in a notice of the visitors of the Crystal Palace, at the time it was most thronged by the crowd of summer and autumn travelers.  The compliment to the ladies of our own city is more noticeable, as coming from a New York writer:--

 “We may here properly observe that American women would be a great deal better dressed if they would more carefully consult simplicity and sobriety in the colors and arrangement of their costumes, especially such as are worn in public places.  For a ball or evening party, it is allowable to be elaborately dressed, gay and brilliant;  but the spectacles of dress we have seen during our visits to the exhibition have often been the reverse of grateful to the eye.  Ladies we have seen who, no doubt, fancied themselves very splendid, poor things, because they were arrayed in the hues of the rainbow—a bonnet of pink perhaps, a dress of bright blue, or of some gay changeable silk, or mantilla of yellow, and a parasol of white.  We have often longed to advise such unlucky persons to go to their hotel, and put on the neat and appropriate traveling dress they had discarded for this horrible finery.  Let our fair readers then be aware that the well-dressed lady is the one who appears in the street, or in public places, in the fewest, simplest, and least conspicuous colors, choosing, of course, such of the neutral hues as are most suited to her complexion, and having every part of her attire of the most scrupulous fit, neatness, and propriety.

 “For perfect taste, the Parisian is unrivalled, and you will often see her dressed in a single neutral color—bonnet, dress, cloak, and gloves nearly the same shade.  Next to her in the art of dress is the Philadelphia Quakeress, who had discarded the awkward and angular forms of costume prescribed by her sect, but adheres to its simple and sober colors.  No class of American women are so well dressed in the street, and, indeed, no other class of women in the world are dressed better, save only the ladies of Paris, who are matchless in taste, and perfect in the most refined science of costume.”
 


 

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