1740-50

 Court dress

  BMT(C)1262
 

Mustard yellow with floral brocade design in various colours.  Décolletage wide, elbow length sleeves. Fitted bodice, open at front, with stomacher. Bodice and skirt let out at later date at right front.

 

This dress would have been worn with a hoop to exaggerate the hips.  In the most fashionable circles theses hoops, or panniers, worn with formal dress were so wide ladies had difficulties passing through doorways.

The bold, brightly coloured floral silk is typical of the first half of the 18th Century when silk manufacture flourished in England and France.  Later patterns were to become more delicate.
   
                               
1740 1780 1800 1820 1840 1851 1856 1875 1878 1890 1900 1910 1925 1930 1940 1950
                               
     
 

Return to Costume