Small Musings

❀ Translated from “Magasin des Modes Nouvelles” June 1787.❀

The gown is made of striped taffeta, with narrow stripes of green, white, and violet. It is lined with the same fabric. The sleeves, made in the “sabot” style, are trimmed with cutwork cuffs of fine cambric linen.

Beneath the gown is a petticoat of rose-colored taffeta shot with white, together with a bodice of the same fabric. The bodice is laced with broad green silk cords threaded through long, polished steel buckles attached at the sides. Around her neck she wears a large plain fichu, crossed in front and fastened behind at the waist.

She wears an apple-green felt hat, painted dark pink underneath. Beneath the hat is a white gauze “cornette d’Amour.”

Her hair is dressed in many small curls, with two large curls falling on either side of her bosom, while the hair behind hangs loose in the style known as “à la Conseillère.”

On her hands are white kid gloves.

On her feet are pink taffeta shoes trimmed with green ribbon.❀

AI restoration of a Victorian photograph by Lady Clementina Hawarden (1822–1865). I’ve struggled to restore it in the past and gave up. I’m so glad to finally see it pulled from its faded shadows.