Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, September 1814.
“Evening Half Dress”
Evening Half Dress is one of those confusing terms that is never explained because, apparently, the magazine’s readers knew exactly what it meant. One assumes it is a Half Dress worn for an evening event that was not quite full-blown formal. What we might call a semi-formal occasion.
The description says the color of this dress is peach-blossom, but every copy I have seen of this print shows the dress in a deep shade of purple. When such discrepancies occur, I always assume that the text for the magazine and the instruction for the colorists somehow got mis-matched.
The satin sleeves inset with lace are quite pretty, giving an otherwise simple dress a bit of elegance.
The print is described in the magazine as follows:
“A plain frock, with full-drawn back, composed of striped sarsnet Italian net of peach-blossom colour; full flounce of blond lace, headed with tufts of the same; a quilling of blond round the top of the dress; long full sleeve of white satin, inlet with lace. Hair in short full curls behind, and blended with flowers on the front of the head. Slippers of white kid. Limerick gloves.”
