| See also these issue pages: | January 1797 | March 1797 | April 1797 | May 1797 | September 1797 |
Last Update 4/25/4
Morning Dresses. (April 1797) These ladies have gone out on a windy morning for a walk. They have on bonnets and shawls over their morning dresses, and one carries a fur muff. The glimpses of ankle in this plate made it "titillating" to the 1797 audience. Note how boldly the bonnets and dresses contrast in color. It always strikes me as odd how fashion plates often features hats and dresses together than seem to be designed without much color coordination.
Evening Dresses. (April 1797) The dress on the left is in the Greek mode, with the headdress resembling a helmet. The draping is supposed to imitate a toga. The seated lady has a monocle attached to a ribbon, a common accessory of the period. Her muff has the fur on the inside and only showing at the edges. A corsage is pinned to her printed overdress. Her headdress is made of a net attached to a band trimmed with a ribbon rosette and some feathers.
 |
Court Dress, from Nicholas Heideloff's Gallery of Fashion, July 1797. Roses trim the skirt of this court dress, worn with two plumes. |
Morning Dress. (September 1797) These ladies have gone out on a windy morning for a walk. They too have on bonnets, and one woman wears a shawl over her morning dress. These ladies are at a fashionable seaside resort; note the bathing machines in the bottom left corner of the image. When one reads Frances Burney's Camilla of 1796, this is a useful image to keep in mind for the scenes that occur at seaside resorts. Camilla is actually nearly raped in one of the seaside resort's tents in which bathers changed.
Walking Dresses. (December 1797) The lady on the left wears a white gown with a tartan belt and band around the hem. She nestles her head down in to her generous brown fur muff. Her friend wears a rose print gown topped by a warm shawl with the same colors of the dress banding the edges. The winter landscape might explain the small feathers on their hats.
To Return to Main Page of The Gallery of Fashion