All Dressed in White:
Antique Lingerie Dresses
From about 1897 through 1915,
the basic style worn by of all ages—from blushing maidens to middle–aged
matrons was the pure-white frothy, lace-trimmed gown known as the “lingerie
dress.” At the turn of the century, Sears Roebuck’s catalog featured more
white laces and sheet white embroideries than any other type of material,
and more than half of the ready-made dresses they offered were made of
white, lace-trimmed cloth. Every American mail-order catalog, clothing shop,
and dressmaker reflected this trend.
Fashion plates from more elite magazines like
Harper’s Bazar and down-to-earth publications like The Delineator all
showed the same kind of filmy gowns—which, true to their name, deftly
impersonated undergarments. The floral whitework, romantic puffing and
shirring, delicious lace inserts, rich silk ribbons, and detailed
pin-tucking featured on the new white dress had once been reserved for a
Victorian lady’s “unmentionables,” but by the late 1890s, it seemed that
undergarments had reached such a spectacular level of extravagance they
could no longer bear to be concealed.
Daring as this style might have seemed at the
time, there was ample historical precedent for it. For example, in 1780
Marie Antoinette refused the rigid and angular fashions of her day and
adopted the softer, more fluid “boudoir look” of an all-white outfit that
was called a chemise a la Reine (or the queen’s chemise). The style,
which seemed so shockingly brazen at first, persisted through the revolution
until the early 1800s. The sheer, slender, high-waisted white style of that
day is now synonymous with the “Jane Austen era.” Made of the gauziest, most
delicate fabrics, Empire gowns were supposedly worn slightly damp by the
most provocative Parisiennes—because when the fabric was wet, it clung,
revealing every feminine curve. Perhaps because the white dress has been
popular for more than a generation, when it finally went out of fashion in
the 1820s, it stayed out. For the rest of the century, white appeared
rarely, and then almost exclusively in evening wear for the wealthy. But by
the late 1890s, the white gown had made a spectacular comeback.
With sewing machines available to achieve a
dressmaker’s wildest fantasy, the new version of the all-white look was far
more flamboyant than any seen before. Ruffles and decorations proliferated
in typically exuberant Victorian style. If a few frills were good, more were
better. Flimsy “invisible” dresses of gauze, net, and fine silk, usually in
shades of white, were embellished with tucks, pleats, and—most
importantly—lace.
“There wad hardly any part of woman’s dress which was not adorned with this
most expensive form of decoration,” writes one fashion historian. “Real lace
in such quantities was often unobtainable and a compromise was discovered in
Irish crochet, for which there was then a considerable vogue...Both Parisian
and London dressmakers regarded it with the highest favor. For light evening
bodices or for dressy ‘afternoon blouses’ there was nothing more
fashionable.”
Machine-made laces played an even more important
role in the democratization of the lingerie dress. Once all women had
dreamed of floating on a cloud of lace, but only the rich could indulge in
the fantasy; now nearly every woman could add the new, fairy-tale lingerie
dress to her wardrobe. An immigrant farmer’s wife was as likely to wear one
as a nouveau riche miss—although the first’s dress might be cotton with
machine-made lace and the second’s would most likely be silk with “real”
lace. In 1894, Ladies’ Home Journal pointed out reassuringly, “White
gowns are usually counted on as expensive...they soil so easily and
necessitate visits either to the laundry or the cleaners that cost so
much...Yet with care, one may be worn for an entire season.”
Fashion magazines also commented on how
extravagantly decorated lingerie dresses were: “There has probably never
been a season when fashions were more charming or more elaborate,” The
Lady noted in 1902. “Not only are the fabrics of exquisite texture, but
they are embellished with miraculously fine hand-embroidery, appliqué lace
insertions, and with trimming of many kinds...Ball gowns of soft textures
are much tucked, with insertions and medallions of lace, and flounces or
frills surround the hem. The appliqué craze has reached such a height that
even flowers and artificial foliage are now arranged in this fashion.
Garnitures of pearls, groups of butterflies or dragonflies, velvet or satin
edges with pearly beads are favorite adornments.”
Even so, lingerie dresses really weren’t much
more difficult to make than any other Victorian style. Patterns were readily
available and fashion magazines frequently gave readers tips for sewing them
easily at home. :ace, even appliqué, was no harder to apply than any other
sort of trim. According to books and magazines for home sewers of the
period, lingerie dresses were typically made at home by constructing the
garment in part of whole, then laying down the lace on top of the fabric.
The lace was then stitched in place and the fabric beneath it cut away.
Though white dresses long enough to sweep the
street obviously soiled easily, they could also be surprisingly practical.
Unlike most other types of Victorian dresses, which were made of un-washable
silks, velvets, satins, and wools, lingerie dresses were most frequently
fashioned from cotton, making them easy to wash at home. Fabrics could be
relatively inexpensive, too. Sears sold sheer “white dress goods” for about
22 cents a yard, machine-made laces for as little as four cents a yard. The
company’s 1906 catalog features ready-made lingerie dresses for $4.75; a
really elaborate example ran about $11. These prices were about average for
most mail-order fashions of the period.
Even in its heyday, however, not every woman
admired “the little white dress.” In her book From A Girl’s Point Of View,
Lilian Bell complained: “A word with you, you dear, unsophisticated man. I
have heard you, with the sounds of your $150-a-month salary ringing in your
ears, gurgle and splash about a girl who ears ‘simple white muslins’ to
balls; and I have heard you set down as extravagant and too rich for your
purse, the girl who wears silk. There is no more extravagant or troublesome
gown in the world than what you call a ‘simple white muslin.’ In the first
place, it never is muslin unless it is Paris muslin, which is no joke if you
are thinking of paying for it yourself, as it necessitates a silk lining
which costs more than the outside. If it is trimmed with real, handmade
lace, that would take as much of your salary as the coal for all winter
would come to. If trimmed with ribbons, they must be changed often to
freshen the gown, whose only beauty is its freshness...If it can be worn
five times during the winter, the girl is either a careful dancer or else a
wallflower. In either case, after every wearing she must have it pressed out
and put away as daintily as if it were egg-shells, all of which is the
greatest nuisance on earth. Often such a gown is torn all to pieces the
first time it is worn. Scores of ‘simple white muslin’ ballgowns at $100
apiece are only worn once or twice.”
The Delineator had kinder words for the
lingerie dress in 1902. “More sheer than ever are the fabrics displayed for
summer gowns...white is in highest favor and for all occasions...Indeed, the
entire Summer outfit may be in white...White batiste is a dainty fabric and
suggests fascinating toilettes when associated with the embroidered batiste
or white all-over lace. These dresses are made unlined and are intended to
be worn over colored silk foundations.” The idea of a sheer dress that could
be transformed and worn on several occasions simply by choosing different
colored slips was new and especially popular and practical for ladies with
limited wardrobe funds.
Another reason for the enormous popularity of the
white lingerie dress at that moment in history may have something to do with
the suffrage movement. White is traditionally associated with youth and
purity, and a vote-seeking woman who appeared young, innocent, and girlish
must have seemed less threatening than the earlier generation of feminists
in their radical Bloomer outfits or masculine suits. One man who’d just
attended a suffrage conference noted approvingly, “When an audience expected
to find a fierce and strident virago and found instead a young lady whose
voice, dress and manner were not only quiet but exquisite, then indeed they
were startled to attention.”
As women moved from the restrictions of the
Victorian era into the relative freedom of a new century, they exchanged the
enormous weight of opulent, often unwieldy fashions for more practical,
tailored clothes. The lingerie dress represents a moment when women stood on
the brink of unimaginable changes—all dressed in white.
(c) Copyright 1990 by Kristina Harris
04/21/2006