Florence’s Croquet Costume: A Paper Doll Dress from 1875

A croquet costume for Florence, a paper doll of a french fashion doll from the 1870s.
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There’s an excellent article about croquet costumes from the Machester Art Gallery and it includes some wonderful Victorian croquet costumes including the dress in blue white and red I based Florence’s croquet dress off of though it dates from a bit later then the rest of her attire being from 1875-1878 which is after my usual 1875 cut off date. In the Manchester Art Galleries wonderful costume collection, there is an archery jacket from 1787 which is beautiful. I never realized archery was considered an acceptable female sport in England as early as that or that the Royal British Bowmen allowed women full membership with voting rights and a snazzy official uniform.

Maybe Florence needs an archery costume. I like to think she’s the sort of adventurous lady who would do well in archery. On the other hand, I already have a skating costume sketched and a riding habit for next week, so perhaps putting more on my plate is not an entirely wise idea.

Here is Florence, the paper doll that wears these dresses.

3 thoughts on “Florence’s Croquet Costume: A Paper Doll Dress from 1875”

  1. Oh… the croquet hoop and mallet are SO neat. What a fun idea to give her accessories. I hope we’ll get more for her. Florence is my favorite paper doll you draw. Though I like Marisol a lot too.

  2. Wow! I peeked aat the Mansfield Gallery , my daughter that passed away loved fans, collected them. I sure would love to see the collection they have of 350 fans. I really like your site.

  3. Thanks, Marge and BeaK. I love museum websites of all stripes, because they usually show of parts of their collection and being an Alaskan girl who rarely got to visit such places, it was always a rush to see the photos of actual garments or paintings or even fans, though I haven’t looked at the their collection of them. I shall go do that. Florence should probably have at least one fan.

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