Bustle dress
Clothes for Women
Inventory number
2018.5.14.7ab.CW.DR.C1880.FRDescription
2-piece camel color bustle dress with dark brown silk details and mother-of-pearl buttons on the bodice.The bustle silhouette, although primarily associated with the second half of the 19th century, originated in earlier fashions as a simple bump at the back of the dress, such as with late 17th-early 18th century mantuas and late 18th- early 19th century Empire dresses. By the 1880s, the soft curve bustle dresses of the early 1870s were replaced with a new distinct silhouette featuring a severely tailored figure from the front and added draperies to the back. The train had disappeared and a bustle or tournure with a fitted gored skirt produced a profile straight in the front, hugging the hips, and exploding into a back fullness that was gathered or pleated. The feminine silhouette continued like this through 1889 before the skirts began to reduce and make way for the S-curve silhouette.
Materials
SilkMother-of-pearl