3-034-659 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Paris fashions for October, 1871. 'At this season of the year there is always a want of distinctive character about the fashions, owing to its being somewhat of a period of transition, when the delicate colours and the materials which have been worn during the summer are beginning to give place to the sombre tints and warmer stuffs necessitated by the approach of winter. Thus the fashions, to a certain extent, partake of the characteristics of the two seasons. What cannot fail to strike, at the present moment, even the most superficial observer, is the fact that in the French capital, where, a little more than a year ago, the unbridled extravagance of female toilets was a scandal and a by-word, simplicity in dress is daily on the increase; though, of course, the reasons for this are not difficult to ascertain [ie war shortages]. The materials usually worn are cashmeres, reps, alpacas, and grenadines, trimmed frequently with velvet of various colours...A favourite dress for young ladies who are not in mourning is black alpaca or cashmere, trimmed with three rows of velvet, each of a different colour...Hats are generally of black velvet trimmed with bunches of fruit or flowers, and bonnets of black lace, with flowers and strings'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.