Pattern Making- The Late Bustle Era Bodice The Look of the 1880's Fashion Plates

There is nothing quite as appealing as a fashion plate, the delicate hand tinted colors, cascades of lacey femininity... ...The problem with this is most of us aren't going to get to wear costumes that would put us in the same social class as those idealized in the fashions plates! If you are lucky enough to get to wear the "fashion plate" costumes PLEEAAZE don't make one out of polyester lace and taffeta! It really ruins the whole effect. (Ok enough of that lecture... ...for now) When you are searching through fashion magazines remember fashion plates often show ALL of the options at once. Very rarely did the average woman put that much into one costume. HOWEVER, the fashion plates do give us a good idea of what was in style- i.e. length of bodice, fullness of sleeve, and decorating ideas. Some are more "useful" than others. For example Butterick Patterns published the Delineator- which showed fashions that could be made from their reasonably priced patterns. (Especially if you could share one of those patterns around in a family) They also often showed several decorating / fabric ideas that could be used to make the same pattern look different. In general fashion plates make very good guides IF we remember to approach them sensibly. When looking at fashion plates for ideas think about the lines of the pattern and adapt the decoration to your budget and character. April 1884 - Young Ladies Journal Some Fashion Plates and Magazines The Costume Gallery- 1886 Delineator The Costumer's Manifesto- timeline of images 1870 The Costumer's Manifesto- timeline of images 1880 La Couturière Parisienne Costume and Fashion Site-1880 fashions Cathy's Wee Victorian Page- Fashion Plates For Sale Antique Patterns and Fashion Magazines Dover Publications offers several books of reprints of fashion plates Lesson 1-Page 7 Lesson Index Page 1- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

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