La Belle Assemblée, December 1815.
“Morning Dress.”
This is an outdoor morning dress, not the more intimate indoor morning dress, and therefore I name it as a Morning Walking Dress.
The bits of blue embroidery trimming the bodice, the wrists, and the flounces is very delicately hand-painted. I often think what a shame it is that the colorists, who so often produced such lovely prints, remain anonymous, and were likely paid very little for their work.
Hats at this time still have high crowns, but those are beginning to shrink a bit. The brims, however, are beginning to explode, and will become even broader in the next 2 years.
The print is described in the magazine as follows:
“A low dress composed of jaconet muslin, the body formed in the French style, and ornamented in a very novel and tasteful manner with a light embroidery in blue; the back is very broad, and there is a slight fullness at the bottom or the waist, which is perfectly Grecian; long full sleeve tastefully ornamented at the wrist with blue embroidery. The skirt rather full, and finished with four flounces, which are lightly edged with blue. Lace shirt and ruff. Head-dress a French hat, composed of white satin, and ornamented with a large bunch of blue flowers. Blue slipper and gloves [the gloves painted yellow in the print] finish the dress.”
