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An Opera Gown from 1833 for the Ensemble Eclectica
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It’s Christmas eve and had this project gone the way I had originally intended, there was going to be whole potential Christmas Carol tie in with the 1840s. Obviously, that didn’t happen. So, instead, I have this entirely not holiday related 1833 opera dress for our 1830s fashion history paper doll. Truth be told, I find the holidays a little exhausting, so I am actually okay with not being the most festive place on the internet.
There’s plenty of hyper-festive places out there if that’s your preference.
So, let’s talk about opera dresses. In the 1830s, opera dresses occupied a unique position in fashion, blending elements of both daywear and evening wear. Since attending the opera required going out, these dresses often included a bonnet, which was a daytime accessory. However, because the opera was an evening event, opera dresses typically featured lower necklines, similar to those of evening or dinner dresses. Despite this, they were still less formal than full ballgowns. Later in the 19th century, opera attire evolved further with the introduction of highly decorative opera coats, worn over dresses for added elegance.
As I mentioned when I was talking about the 1831 walking dress, evening dresses can be identified by having necklines that are much lower than day dresses. I chose this opera dress, because I really loved the bow details on the skirt. I decided against blue for the color scheme, because I’ve already done a blue dress for this 1830s fashion history paper doll. How many blue dresses does one paper doll need? After reading up on the 1830s in English Women’s Clothing of the Nineteenth Century by C. Willett Cunnington, I settled on rose instead. According to Cunnington, rose was one of the colors popular in the early 1830s. My own observations of fashion plates seems to corroborate this observation. There’s a lot of pink.
For those of you who celebrate, I hope you have a lovely Hanukkah and Christmas tomorrow. I plan to spend mine doing very little, though if I feel up for it, I might bake some cookies.
Later this week, there will be a second color scheme for this gown for my supporting Patrons as a thank you for all their incredible support this year. There might be a third post this week. I’m not sure yet. Things are a little complicated at present.
A Walking Dress from 1831 for Ensemble Eclectica
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Today’s paper doll gown is an 1831 walking dress. When I wrote about the 1830’s carriage dress last week, I talked about the silhouette of this era. So, I’ll save you all from having to listen to all that over again and focus on walking dresses.
Like that carriage dress, this 1831 walking dress is designed for daytime wear and intended for outdoor activities like walking. Dresses like this could also be worn when attending informal events, such as visits, shopping, or afternoon social gatherings. Like most day dresses of the 1830s, the necklines were high, covering the collar bone. Along with the dress, there were essential accessories- bonnets and gloves. These bonnets were often quite large with wide brims to shield the face from the sun and covered in lots of ribbon trim. Just like the dresses of the 1830s, bonnets were lavish.
This gown appeared in the The Lady’s Monthly Museum in June 1831. This magazine is a treasure trove of 1830s culture with serials, poetry, music, and, of course, lots of fashion.
When I was reinterpreting this dress for my paper doll, there were several elements that I really loved, both because of the design and in terms of how they reflected 1830s fashion. One of the first things that stood out to me was the color combination. I really liked the periwinkle blue paired with the green. This color combination felt fresh and historically appropriate, as the 1830s saw a wide range of bold and contrasting color choices in women’s fashion. Green was particularly popular, because of the development of artificial green pigments, like Paris green in 1814 and the earlier Scheele’s green.
Unfortunately, this type of green pigment was made from arsenic compounds, so it was very toxic. That didn’t dull it’s popularity. Generally, people didn’t realize how toxic these green dyes could be and it wasn’t until the 1890s that they were discontinued, though green fell out of fashion as a fashion color in the 1860s which might have something to do with the toxicity of the dye. Who knows? It did stick around as an insecticide into the 1930s and 1940s.
Man, history is weird. It boggles my mind to think that this dye/paint pigment, which was so popular in the 1830s, later became used as an insecticide. The things I learn researching paper dolls…
Fashion history often intersects with other unexpected parts of culture in such funny ways. I digress, as I often do.
Next up will be a dress from 1832 later this week.
The Carriage Dress: 1830 for Ensemble Eclectica
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Today’s 1830s paper doll dress is a carriage dress from June 1830. I’ve always loved the military inspired dresses of the 1830s and this is a great example.
Like any period of fashion, the 1830s had a specific fashionable silhouette. Women sought to achieve a wide, soft sloped shoulder line, very small waist, and full bell-shaped skirt that hit the ankles. The big sleeves, the wide skirts, the belts- all of these disparate elements came together to create the appearance of a smaller waist. The exaggerated fashionable silhouette is both charming and, at times, a little disquieting to the modern eye, I think. In poorly illustrated fashion plates, it sometimes ends up looking quite terrifying. For years, I disliked it. I remember as a child and teen seeing these dresses and thinking they looked so dumb.
Now that I’m older, I’ve actually come to find a sort of charm to the 1830s. Yes, it looks very silly, but there’s some real whimsy here. It’s such a ridiculous looking period in western fashion that I find it endearing. I also think there is tendency to think of the Victorian period as sepia-toned and very elegant, but I love the 1830s for being silly.
Let us embrace silly looking clothing!
So, this is a carriage dress. Carriage dresses were slightly more formal than walking dresses and were worn for carriage rides. They almost always feature a matching bonnet and as day dresses, they have a high neckline. (Basic 1830s rule of thumb: If the dress is a day dress, the neckline covers the collar bone. Evening dresses don’t, while ball gowns get positively risque with their necklines.)
This carriage dress was published in a fashion plate in the June 1830 issue of The Lady’s Monthly Museum which was a British periodical publication (so like a modern magazine) that started in 1798. It went through a few name changes and mergers, but ran until 1847. Along with fashion plates, it published biographies and portraits of famous aristocratic people, essays, and poems. Serialized stories also appeared in the Lady’s Monthly Museum, often before being published as novels. The magazine was quite successful and very exclusively aimed at women.
When I was reinterpreting this dress for my paper doll, I actually simplified it- which seems hard to imagine. The bonnet especially, because I wasn’t sure how to get the long trailing ribbons in a way that would work for the paper doll. I sort of regret omitting them, because they’re so typical of the period.
Lastly, and I want to be very clear here, this is a sort of new time period to me and I was learning as I drew this 1830s paper doll dress.
An 1830s Paper Doll Printable with her Historical Underwear for Ensemble Eclectica
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The Backstory of All This
I originally planned to spend all of December on a big project. It was going to be a series of paper dolls from 1830 to 1859. Julie Matthews’ December themes (like this one from 2015) inspired this idea, back when I started thinking about it. However, that didn’t quite go as planned — life happens. And that’s okay. My new plan is slightly smaller in scope. I’ll be posting paper dolls with historical clothing from the 1830s (and maybe 1840s and 1850s) on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the rest of December and possibly into January. Who can say? Not me.
I tend to hesitate about sharing things before they’re complete, because I dislike leaving projects undone. But lately, I’ve realized that’s a bit silly. Drawing paper dolls isn’t life or death, and it’s okay if things don’t go exactly as planned. I’d rather share what I’ve done and keep moving forward than leave the work sitting unfinished on my laptop. Plus, I think you’ll enjoy seeing the project even if it doesn’t work out like I had originally imagined it would.
In fact, no one would know I’d planned to do the 1840s and 1850s, if I hadn’t said anything. But here I am, being very honest. (I haven’t even started collecting reference images for the 1850s, so I am quite behind on that one. Probably won’t happen, which makes me sort of sad, honestly.)
Women’s Underwear In the Early 1830s
So, let’s talk a little about 1830’s women’s underwear, since today’s 1830s paper doll printable is a lady with some undies on. I based her underwear off this set from the V&A museum, though I made the stays/corset colorful based on this one.
In the 1830s, women’s underwear primarily consisted of a chemise, pantalettes, petticoats and a corset/stays. (Fun fact: The words “corset” and “stays” are both used in the 1830s, but the term “stays” largely falls out of use by the end of the decade.) Generally, these corsets used seams and cording providing support, rather then boning. (Also, boneing doesn’t mean bones- it means whale baleen.)
The chemise was a loose, knee-length garment made from lightweight cotton or linen, worn directly against the skin to safeguard outer garments from perspiration. Chemise’s had wide necklines. Pantalettes (also spelled pantaletes) or drawers covered the legs and provided some more modesty. I can’t seem to definitively determine which is the more precise term. Both terms seem to have been employed to describe similar garments and I’m not an expert on 1830s clothing.
Though not appearing in this 1830s paper doll printable, petticoats supported the wide skirts of the era. Here’s a lovely example from the Met. This is before anyone invented hoopskirts, so women wore lots of petticoats. Additionally, women often wore sleeve supports (like this or these) to get the right shape for the huge puffed sleeves of the era called, “sleeve puffs” which is the most wonderful name. I didn’t add sleeve puffs to the paper doll, because I wanted flexibility with sleeve shape, as it changes throughout the decade, and the puffs would have made that more difficult. Sometimes with paper dolls, functionality has to trump historical accuracy. (But man… I really do want to draw sleeve puffs someday.)
Foxglove & Butterflies: Cut & Color Couture
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Last week, I posted Ruffles and Dragons, a paper doll gown that Chinese motifs inspired. After I finished drawing that paper doll, I became fascinated with the idea of doing a totally different feeling dress with the same silhouette of the overdress and a different under dress. So, I ended up with this foxglove princess paper doll.
Stained glass inspired this princess paper doll’s gown. My mother makes beautiful stained glass and I was thinking of stained glass lamps, especially the way the leading on stained glass highlights and breaks things into shapes.
I drew the foxglove, because I really love foxglove flowers. It’s one of the few plants that grows super well in Southeast Alaska where I grew up. Also, as a kid, I thought it was cool how poisonous it is while being so pretty looking. I was trying to stretch a little. I also thought the shape would fit will into the panels of the overdress. So, while it wasn’t really a well planned project, that’s how I ended up with a foxglove princess paper doll.
The underdress I had originally planned to pair with the dragon overdress, but I didn’t think the ribbons really fit in with the dragons. That was when I came up with the idea of the spirals that I used on that dress. So, for this dress, I was thinking about white victorian gowns. Ruching details decorate the sides of the bodice.
I’m really excited about how this gown turned out. It’s been fun to explore new themes and experiment with different influences—stained glass, nature, and princess dresses. While the process wasn’t entirely planned, that’s okay! I think sometimes things are fun as little experiments. As always, feel free to share your thoughts or suggestions for future designs — I’d love to hear what inspires you.
Ruffles & Dragons: Cut & Color Couture
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Happy Friday!
I confess that I’ve been struggling to focus on anything paper doll related this last few days. Had I been on the ball, I would have pre-scheduled things, but I didn’t. Eh. The world keeps turning, so here we are.
Moving on from that, today’s paper doll coloring page is my first Asian paper doll for the Cut and Color Couture series. Chinese clothing inspired the motifs on the dress and the over dress. I don’t like attaching ethnicity to my paper dolls, but describing her as a paper doll with an epicanthic fold on her eyes is probably not going to play nice with the search engines. (And like it or not, a certain amount of playing nice with Search Engines is how I have to roll.)
I originally designed this paper doll’s dress as an experiment in layering two pieces over each other. Back when I was a kid, I really love layered bid skirted dresses. I used to buy this one sticker paper doll over and over again called the Storybook Princess paper doll. It was only 1.50 in those days. It is a sticker paper doll book (which I was delighted to find out you can still buy it.) The doll had tops and skirts you could put together to make princess gowns. It’s a great paper doll.
In honor of that love of princess gowns, I designed my own storybook princess paper doll version. The spiral motifs on both the dress and the overdress are somewhat based on the motifs you see on 19th century Chinese clothing. This Han women’s jacket, this sleeveless jacket, or this Manchu woman’s outer gown all have spiral designs on them. It’s a very loose connection, but that’s what was inspiring me.
The dragons were originally going to be butterflies, but I draw a lot of butterflies. So, I thought dragons would be a bit more of a change of pace. I don’t love the design I ended up with, because it feels a little too aggressive. This doesn’t really reflect that you see with dragons as decorative motifs on actual Chinese pieces.
Dragons show up on a lot as Chinese decorative motifs, you can see some here from the Jin Dynasty or this one from a roof tile or these on a dragon robe. My limited understanding is that Dragon robes, also known as gunlongpao, were worn by Chinese emperors. To count as a dragon, it has to have five claws. My dragons only have four claws, which I think means they are not imperial dragons. (I think? I ended up down a whole four-clawed vs five-clawed dragon rabbit hole and I still don’t totally know that difference in how they were used. I do know one had four and one had five claws. That’s all I got.)
Anyway, I digress.
This is the first of two of these designs, because I was having a lot of fun with that overdress. The second version is more floral. That might be up next week.
Happy Halloween!
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When I was a child, my grandmother always sent me a holiday card for Halloween and usually it was a paper doll card. This is why I always try to do a halloween paper doll.
Generally, when I think of gothic designs, I think of Morticia Addams from the movies. (Too young to have been a child of the TV show I’m afraid) and she’s a very mermaid skirts sort of design. However, I don’t see why mermaid skirts should get to have all the fun, so I went regency for this one.
All in all, I think the paper doll’s hair is a bit 1920s and her dresses are regency and her border is very much art nuevo. All in all, what time period is this?
No idea, but I think it looks neat!
I hope you have a lovely safe and happy Halloween. Enjoy the paper dolls! I’ll be passing out candy and eating chili.
Ensemble Electica: Sweat in Style
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Around the same time I was working on my tennis paper doll, I found myself thinking- I should draw some work out clothing for the Ensemble Electica paper dolls. Mostly, I was thinking this, because I hadn’t yet and who doesn’t want to draw paper doll leggings? (Probably plenty of people, but they don’t run a paper doll website.)
Personally, my favorite workout is yoga. I love how I feel after I do yoga. So, I included a yoga mat and the kind of clothing I would wear to do yoga if I was the sort of person who had dedicated yoga outfits. Aspirational yoga attire. My actual yoga attire is leggings and an oversized t-shirt with a walrus on it from the Indianapolis zoo, because the walrus is really cute and I like walrus.
So, this isn’t really a yoga paper doll, as much as a sporty fashion paper doll. Maybe she’s old school and going to step aerobics. (I actually also kinda love step aerobics.) Maybe she’s just putting on cute workout clothing to go out and buy a bagel. Who can say?
The dress was an extra piece from my tennis paper doll that I thought I would use here, as it wouldn’t fit on the tennis paper doll as I was doing the layout. Maybe she’s a really good tennis player.
Since I drew my sporty fashion paper doll and was coloring her at the same time I colored my tennis fashion paper doll, the most important thing to me was that the color scheme feel totally different. I didn’t want it to have the same vibe at all. So, the tennis paper doll’s vibe is very bright and fresh. This vibe is more calming and low key.
Cut & Color Couture: 1942 War Era Wardrobe
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Today’s 1940s style paper doll happened because I had access to full digitized sears catalogs from 1942. I don’t know who put together the website simply called Catalogs & Wishbooks, but I am grateful to them on a regular basis. It is a collection of dully digitized catalogs from major department stores- Sears, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward. You can search the catalogs or to just look through. It’s simple and very very internet old school. I love it so much. It’s why this paper doll exists, because it gave me access to fully digitized catalogs of the era.
To summarize the era very briefly, World War II really influenced women’s fashion in the 1940s (not surprising, I know). As resources became scarce due to wartime rationing, practicality and functionality took precedence over extravagance. This led to the emergence of simpler silhouettes, with tailored suits and dresses becoming popular. Women’s outfits often featured shoulder pads, defined waists and just longer than knee length skirts. Plus, military inspired details like patch pockets and shoulder details were popular. Fabric rationing created “efficient” dresses, particularly in England where rationing was most intense. There’s also a lot of whimsy in hats at this period.
Our 1940s style paper doll has dresses, hats, purses, swimsuit, and shoes which all come from the Sears 1942 catalogs. From the Spring Summer Catalog, on page 195, there is the swimsuit (The white one) and the shoes on page 146. I mean, I can’t exactly grab a swimsuit from the Winter catalog. Her hat comes from the Winter catalog on page 119 (I avoided trying to draw the net on the hat.) The dresses all come from the Winter Catalog on page 61, on page 71 and on page 47.
It’s getting chilly up here as winter sets in. I sort of love this time of year- the leaves turn and everything sort of moves toward preparing for winter. The seasons dictate life in Alaska, which is one to the things I really like about it. You can not ignore the seasonal change up here. Winter is around the corner.
Cut & Color Couture: 1926 Flapper Fashion
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As a librarian, I usually make it a point to cite my sources, especially when I talk about historical stuff. But I have to admit, I didn’t jot down all my references this time around, so… you’re just going to have to trust me.
I know all of these lovely dresses are from Good Housekeeping from the year 1926, but the exact months and page numbers remain unknown. You can read all the issues from that year, over on the HathiTrust website. It’s a cool online library run by a bunch of big research universities in the U.S., so there’s a ton of great info to explore. Seriously, I end up spending hours poking around there, if I’m left unsupervised.
Anyway, this is one of a collection of Cut and Color Couture series paper dolls that I have been working on that are historical. It’s been fun. I can’t wait to share it- even if I don’t have perfect citations for most of it.
Ensemble Eclectica: Vacationing in 1936
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Happy Labor day! I can’t quite believe August is over. Wow. That was an unexpected month off! But life has quieted down a tiny bit (okay, not very much). The least I think I can do is share the last of my 1930s sets, before I potentially disappear again.
(Nothing bad, but I’m teaching this semester for the first time and it’s a lot!)
Out of every 1930s fashion paper doll I’ve created, this one stands out with the most cohesive theme. This paper doll design hopefully captures the essence of a vacation wardrobe in around 1936. She showcases clothing for sports and summer activities. I keep thinking beach vacation, probably because of the swimsuit. (I could have labeled things here, but I’ve delayed in so long in sharing this that I decided to share and move on.)
For my 1930s fashion paper doll, I picked out pieces from the McCall’s Style News magazines of 1936. I really wanted to try to make a cohesive set. So, the mini-wardrobe has a stylish sports dress, ideal for casual daytime activities, with matching jacket. There is also a playful split skirt romper, which I assume you wear while playing tennis or other athletic activities. The trousers with top are there for golf or whatever a girl might do in trousers at the time. I’d say horseback riding, but an actual riding habit would be more for that.
To complement these outfits, I added a straw hat. It can be mix and matched with any of the clothing pieces. I decided on just one hat, though of course, hats were crucial for the era of the 1930s. Feel free to draw more or steal them from other paper doll sets.
This 1936 photo of Carol Lombard inspired this paper doll’s hair. Just in case you were curious about where that came from.
I have an amazing time at the 2024 Paper Doll Convention in Indianapolis. I didn’t take nearly as many photos as I should have, but I will try to put together the small number I have into something. Overwhelmed for a million non-paper doll reasons at the event by other “real life” things that were happening at the same time, I just haven’t managed to quite get my feet back under me.
(Real life should not intrude on paper dolls, darn it! Though I am trying hard to be kind to myself about it, because as one very nice and friendly blog reader reassured me at the convention with something like, “I’ve been following along since the beginning and I know your life has gotten more complicated. Please don’t feel bad about missing posts.” )
As with all my 1930s paper dolls so far, I have a second page I’ll be sharing for my patrons at some point this month.