Fashions for October 1871

October 1871 fashions

Loretta reports:

The October 1871 issue of The World of Fashion calls our attention to something we might rarely think about: the influence of political events on fashion. Fashion in some cases, apparently, took itself to a calmer environment, and proceeded as usual.

“It is now more than twelve months, since the siege of Paris occasioned the total collapse of Fashion in the French capital, and for nearly nine months afterwards no new Fashions could be produced in that city. Attempts were indeed made, to carry on some of the French Journals of Fashion in other continental capitals, but owing to the force of circumstances nothing really new was produced there, and their Costumes were merely repetitions, or rather exaggerations of the fashions of the Empire, including the enormous bouffants and all kinds of extravagance and bad taste.

“The proprietors of this Magazine, however, had foreseen the probable course of events, and when the fortune of War declared against “La Belle France,” they advised their staff of artists and Artistes des Modes, to seek refuge in London. They did so, and carried on, uninterruptedly, their production of elegant creations, combining with them something of the English taste acquired during their stay.

“At the same time, England being freed from all chance of entanglement in the disastrous conflict then raging on the Continent, became the natural place of refuge for the elite of Parisian Society, and thus Fashion made her usual progress, without the least retardation; in fact it then combined the brilliancy of French ideas, with the well known simplicity and elegance of the English taste.”

October 1871 fashions description

If you compare with last month’s fashions, you’ll note the way the shape of the skirt is changing, beginning to flatten in the front, and gathering up in the back as we progress toward that late-Victorian emphasis on the booty.

Fashion plate and quotations from The World of Fashion and Continental Feuilletons [afterw.] The Ladies' Monthly Magazine, The World of Fashion [afterw.] Le Monde Élégant; or The World of Fashion Vol 48 Jan – Dec 1871 via Google Books.

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