Last week, in my “If I was born 100 years earlier, what would I wear” series, I looked at the wedding dress I would have worn as a 20-year-old in 1884. Possibly, my parents would have been dreadfully relieved that I was not left “on the shelf” as 20 years old would have been pushing it. In modern reality, I was married at 25. Another reality is I held off on having children a couple of years because I could. There were no real birth control options-and certainly none that I know of that would have been SAFE and controllable by ME in 1884 so likely by 1885 I would have needed this maternity dress:
It is a bit hard to see with a front view but the mannequin has a baby bump. I wish I had a side and back view to show you.
UPDATE: A LINK HAS BEEN FOUND BY ONE OF MY READERS!
I’d wear this even if I didn’t have a babybump!
It is pretty awesome! I will one day make a purple silk gown….
Hi, sorry to be digging into the archives like this, but I was looking for Victorian maternity gowns and I happened upon the source for this one, I thought you might like to know. I found more pictures of the gown posted here: http://oldrags.tumblr.com/post/11391408771/dress-1880s-kent-state with the watermark intact “Kent State University Museum”.
OH! Thanks! I appreciate that!