Reception Dress, 1886
Bustle-era dresses challenged the home sewer with their complex draped skirts; up to ten bodice pieces; and layers of lining, stiffening, and padding. Drafting systems and paper patterns were meant to help but had their own challenges. Achieving the glove-tight fit fashion and propriety demanded of the bodice, without what we would now call a “muffin top” effect of flesh spilling over the top of the corset, was tricky. (Notice the underarm pads on this dress, which addressed the latter.) No wonder dressmaking manuals still advised getting a bodice fitted by a dressmaker, and copying it as needed at home.
This dress’s elaborate construction—with beautifully cut and bound seam allowances in the bodice, pads under the arms, and multiple layers of interfacing and lining, among other details—proclaim it to be the work of a professional dressmaker, quite likely one with a workshop staffed by several cutters, fitters, and seamstresses. Such a designer/dressmaker was known as a “modiste” by the late nineteenth century, suggesting a higher level of elegance and a more established business than the local dressmaker who worked solo.
The reception dress would have had trim around the neck and probably draped on the skirt, which has since been removed, probably to adorn another dress in typical practice of reuse and alteration. This was probably lace of some kind but might also have included beading. It was worn by Malvina “Mollie” Buttles Boals of Iowa City, Iowa, at a party celebrating her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in 1886.
“Few ladies have the time to learn a good system of dress cutting…A very good pattern may be secured by going to a first-class dressmaker and having a basque [bodice] cut.”
Home Dressmaking; A Complete Guide to Household Sewing, 1892
Silk, cotton, metal boning and fastenings. Gift of Dianne Fitze and Judd Fitze 96.50.2
1: Silk dress with cotton and other materials in lining. Gift of Mrs. Dianne Fitze and Mr. Judd Fitze 96.50.2
2: Interior view