Women's Fashion in the 1860s

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the crinoline dress and the main materials used for women's fashion in the 1860s. The paper explains that the Civil War in the United States influenced fashion due to the scarcity and high cost of materials, and the necessity of women to dress more practically and have more mobility. The paper further relates that the women's magazine, Godey's Lady's Book, was a major influence on fashion and style. The paper shows how fashion-consciousness was as important 140 years ago as it is today.

From the Paper:

"The crinoline dress is probably the style most associated with women's fashion at the height of the Victorian era. This type of dress was well established among the women of high society in both England and the United States by the 1850s, and continued to develop throughout the 1860s. It consisted of a skirt with a greatly exaggerated circumference, reaching up to six feet in diameter in its heyday. The predecessors to the crinoline achieved girth by the wearing of multiple petticoats under the skirt, but this proved ineffective. The first crinolines were supported by heavy and brittle round whalebone and, later, bendable brass. Neither material was ideal, however, and by the 1860s, flattened steel wire, or "hoops" as it was known in the U.S., was being used."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Godey's Lady's Book: ChitChat." Godey's Lady's Book. 1997 (original article published in July, 1865). University of Nevada, Reno. 15 Feb 2007 <http://www.unr.edu/sb204/theatre/chittoc.html>.
• Sterrett, Alansa Rounds. "Augusta County: Diary of Alansa Rounds Sterrett: 1865." The Valley of the Shadow Project. 2007. University of Virginia. 14 Feb 2007 <http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/>.
• "1860s in Fashion." Wikipedia. 6 Jan 2007. 14 Feb 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860s_in_fashion>.
• Cunningham, Patricia. Reforming Women's Fashion, 1850-1920. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003.
• Faust, D.G.. Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

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