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Plate XXX.

Fig. 117.—1845-1855.

At the beginning of this long reign we find the pointed bodice with a normal length of waist has really come to stay, though many dresses retain the waistband till the fifties, and there is such a confusion of styles at that time, it is difficult to arrange a sequence. From the 18th century fashions became more complicated in the greater variety of design, each overlapping the other, and several distinct forms of character come and go during this long reign. I do not envy the person who undertakes the chronology of our present period.

At the commencement in 1837 the huge sleeves gathered at the wrist were still in evidence, especially as a gauze oversleeve to evening attire, and they continued thus to the fifties, but very large sleeves were really dying out and the usual reaction was setting in; the full-shouldered sleeve had turned a somersault and was neatly gathered tight from the shoulder to the elbow, the fullness falling on the forearm, and this was gathered into a tight setting or wristband. The V-shaped front to the bodice was kept in many dresses by a collar or two tapering from the shoulders to the waist, the fullness of the breast often being tightly gathered at the shoulders, besides a few inches in the front point of the bodice. A very plain tight-fitting sleeve became fashionable, and on most of these we find a small upper sleeve or a double one as shown in A, Plate [XXX] (see p. [266]); this was sometimes opened at the outer side. These sleeves continued till about 1852. In 1853 a bell-shaped sleeve is noticed in ordinary dress, and this continued in various sizes till 1875, reaching its fuller shape about 1864. These types of sleeves were usually worn over a tight one or a full lawn sleeve gathered at the wrist; most bodices with this sleeve were closely fitted and high in the neck, the waist often being cut into small tabs. We also notice for a few years in the early fifties the deeper part of the bell curved to the front of the arm, giving a very ugly appearance. A close-fitting jacket also came into evidence till about 1865 with tight sleeves and cuffs, sometimes with a little turn-down collar and a longer skirt as in Fig. C, Plate [XXXIII] (see p. [282]). This particularly fine embroidered specimen, in imitation of the 18th-century style, is interestingly cut away short at the back to allow for better setting on the crinoline. There is another type of sleeve seen about 1848, of a plain, full, square cut; these became varied in shape, being opened up the side and generally trimmed with wide braids. This clumsy character is seen up to 1878, the later ones being fuller in cut. Zouave jackets were occasionally worn in the forties and later in the early sixties, when the wide corselet belt was again favoured. Skirts at the beginning of the reign were fully set out on drill petticoats, stiff flounces, and even whalebone, so it was hardly "a great effect" when the crinoline appeared about 1855, though a furious attack was made against it at first; this undersetting developed to its fullest extent between 1857 and 1864, and many dresses in the early sixties were also worn short, showing the high boots of this period. At first the crinoline was slightly held back from the front by ties, and again in the sixties it was often kept with a straight front, the fullness being held to the back, till the appearance of the bustle brought in another shape. The skirts were now pulled in tight to the front of the figure and bunched up at the back, with a train or shaped flounced pieces overlapping each other caught up under the bustle, as in Fig. B, Plate [XXXIII] (see p. [282]).