1877 Natural Form Afternoon Dress

1880s natural form gown

Here are pictures of my 1877 natural form dress. I love the look of natural form dresses, but they’re not really practical with their trains brushing the floor. 😉

natural form dress

For my 1877 natural form gown, I’ve used different kinds of white fabric I had in my stash: satin, a kind of taffeta, and cotton batiste for the ruffles on the sleeves and neckline.

cuirass bodice

The dress has a cuirass bodice – a tight-fitting, long-waisted bodice – with princess seams.

On the front is a draped overskirt.

natural form afternoon gown

The train part of the skirt has a decorative ruffle and pleated part. At each side of the train are two satin bows.

1877 dress hem ruffle pleats

The hem of the skirt is decorated with a ruffle and a pleated satin strip.

My dress is mainly based on this 1877 fashionplate. Here’s a Tissot painting of a white afternoon dress. And here’s a cream-coloured Worth dress. Like this dress, my dress has elbow-length sleeves and a square neckline, suitable as afternoon or dinner dress. This source states that dresses in the late 1870s often featured different fabrics in the same colour, one matt and one shiny. And here’s an 1880 fashionplate of an ivory silk evening dress. And there’s a pretty ca. 1885 silk moiré and lace ball gown.

Here are pictures of the cuirass bodice of my dress.

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