1818 fashion

Silk Sarsnet Dress (1818-1822) elaborate hem trims on widening skirts are in style. Sleeve puffs are popular—usually in a “Renaissance” style with slashed effects and contrasting fabric puffs. The neoclassical mode and its simplicity have been eclipsed in favor of a variety of historic and ethnographic influences, and increasing amounts of decoration.

The 18th century was a century of great shifts in political and social thinking. In the beginning of the century, Europe was still dominated by the idea that monarchs were "chosen by God", and this was their true belief. This idea was so prevelant, that priests and clergymen were often present at the birth of royals in order to ordain their souls as sacrosanct to god and their "chosen position". This idea begins to fall apart with the Age of Enlightenment, an era from the 1650s to the 1780s…

Dress 1818 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fashion Plate, 'Walking Dress' for 'The Repository of Arts', Rudolph Ackermann (England, London, 1764-1834), England, London, April 1, 1818, Prints, Hand-colored engraving on paper.

One of hundreds of thousands of free digital items from The New York Public Library.

"A black crape frock over a black sarsnet slip: the body is composed of white crape tastefully ornamented with deep vandykes of black velvet, each vandyke finished at the point by a little light ornament of black chenille ..."

Woman on left wears a dark gray morning dress with long sleeves and an empire waist. The dress is trimmed with black at the hem, cuffs, and along the front closure. The sleeves puff a bit at the shoulders; these puffs are decorated with black. The dress has a black band under the bust, a line of black buttons or beads that scoops along the yoke, and a high, lacy white collar edged in black. The woman wears dark gray gloves and shoes. Her cylindrical, dark gray hat is trimmed with black…

Fashion Plate - La Mode Illustree - 1869