Printed Page 364-0(cont.)

SOURCES IN CONVERSATION

Sources for Western Society: Printed Page 364

22-4 |Dressing the Respectable Woman (ca. 1890)

The clothes worn by late-nineteenth-century middle-class and elite women concerned with respectability were form-fitting, multilayered, cumbersome, and uncomfortable. In order to achieve what was seen as the ideal female silhouette, women began by putting on a set of rigid undergarments, including whale-bone corsets, an operation that required the assistance of a servant. Once dressed, the fashionable woman remained dependent on her servants, since her attire restricted her movement and made physical labor all but impossible.

image

Cregmile, Kate R. (1891–1923) / Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, USA / The Bridgeman Art Library.

READING QUESTIONS

  1. Question

    What details about the dress catch your attention? Why?

  2. Question

    Do you think it likely that nineteenth-century women had waists as narrow as this dress suggests? What would have been required for a typical woman to fit into this dress?

  3. Question

    What does the dress tell you about late-nineteenth-century ideas about the “perfect” female body?

  4. Question

    What connections can you make between this dress and nineteenth-century ideas about the social and economic roles of elite and middle-class women?