In order to present a garment convincingly on a display figure it is essential to know when it was made. Understanding how to use a wide variety of sources will help you to arrive at a date or date range, in order to establish the silhouette appropriate for the time. Since dress historians and curators specializing in dress and textiles will be accustomed to finding and assessing relevant sources, the following information is aimed at those less familiar with this process. When in doubt you can always consult a dress historian or specialist museum curator.
Each garment has its own history and this is directly related to contemporary events and the manufacturing possibilities then available to its creator. It is possible to identify when a garment was made by closely analysing and comparing each part with contemporary imagery. However, not all the visual sources discussed below will be useful in each case.
When trying to find appropriate reference images, it is vital to understand how to interpret the information they contain. It is not enough just to observe the size of the bust, waist and hips of a garment – it is essential to examine how they relate to each other, with the waist being the pivotal reference point. Whether high and close to the bustline or low and nearer to the hipline, the waist’s position is an important indicator of a garment’s date. This information can then be related to the length and width of the skirt and size and shape of the sleeves to narrow the date range even further.
Having a check list of questions to be answered will ensure nothing significant is missed.
Figure 2. 1 Bodice and train c. 1877–78. The printed over-dress consisted of a bodice with a train, the skirt was lost. Displayed by the author with a replica skirt. Dress courtesy of the Hurry family. Photography Robbie Pettigrew.
CHECK LIST
• What are the most outstanding features of the garment?
• How big is the waist and what is its relationship to the bust and hips?
• Was a corset needed to control the shape of the bodice?
• How wide are the shoulders?
• How wide and how long is the skirt?
• If there is a bustle, is it high at the waist or lower over the hips?
• What shape and size are the sleeves?
• What was the overall silhouette of the garment when it was worn?
• When would the fabric have been fashionable?
• Is the garment hand or machine stitched?
• Who might have worn a garment like the one you are researching?
• How would their way of life have affected their clothing choices?
Paintings
A dated painting or drawing of the owner wearing the garment to be displayed is an excellent primary source. It gives an idea of the shape of the garment when it was worn and indicates how the wearer wished to be perceived by their peers when wearing it. This could be conventional or rebellious depending on the era. Whether strictly conservative or anti-establishment the original wearer’s attitudes are of great importance when reinterpreting and displaying their fashion. Knowing the age of the wearer when the garment was worn can also be significant, as it can guide important decisions like the position of the garment neckline on a mannequin. This sounds a relatively minor consideration but a low neckline positioned incorrectly with too much cleavage showing can easily turn a young girl into a ‘courtesan’, totally changing the viewer’s impression of the garment and the wearer. Conversely, more mature wearers may not be not quite so fashionable, often preferring more conventional styles from their past. In the portrait of Franziska Schier, painted 1833–36 by Karl Christian Aubel, the young woman’s dress shows a fashionably wide, but demure neckline appropriate for a young woman in society at the beginning of the nineteenth century (see figure 2. 2). In the painting of Joséphine-Éléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn, Princesse de Broglie, twenty years later, the young princess wears an opulent dress with a much lower neckline, but perfectly appropriate for a fashionable woman of her status in the 1850s (see figure 2. 3).
Figure 2. 2 Portrait of Franziska Schier. Painted 1833–36 by Karl Christian Aubel. https://commons. wikimedia. org/wiki/File:Karl_Christian_Aubel
Figure 2. 3 Joséphine-Éléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn (1825–60), Princesse de Broglie, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 1851–53. Credit: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975. Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access.
Conversation pieces and genre paintings depict groups of people wearing clothes for both special occasions and everyday events. Whether these paintings are of external or internal places they can provide an intimate insight into the role clothing played in the lives of the people portrayed. They can also indicate the social status of the wearer, as seen in the painting, ‘The Sailor’s Wedding’ (see figure 2. 4). The bride wears a fashionable dress but it is made from simpler, less costly fabric and trimmings than those worn by Queen Victoria for an opulent royal wedding. The wedding guests are also dressed in plainer clothing in contrast to the elaborate garments seen in the society wedding (see figure 2. 5). The woman walking in the countryside with a parasol painted by Monet in 1875 shows the lightness of the dress fabric caught by the wind and the length of the skirt, a long skirt, skimming the blades of grass but short enough to allow a brisk walk in the countryside (see figure 2. 6).
Figure 2. 4 The Sailor’s Wedding 1852. Richard Caton Woodville, Snr. https://art. thewalters. org/detail/22135/the-sailors-wedding/ Creative Commons licence.
Figure 2. 5 Marriage of Queen Victoria, 10 February 1844. Etching by Charles, Eden Wagstaff after Sir George Hayter. © Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bequest of Mary Sheldon Lyon, 1947. https://www. metmuseum. org/art/collection/search/706045
Figure 2. 6 Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet with her son by Claude Monet 1875. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon.