Recently I received a couple of cabinet cards as a gift (thanks Lottie!) Based on what I can see of the bodice I’d guess this is an 80’s dress. The hair cut stumps me. Side part. Different. Bangs are not frizzy… different but I have seen it before. But if you look by the ears, it looks like the hair is cut, not pulled back. What do you think? An illusion because of the angle? A rebel? Did she cut and sell her hair to raise money for this AMAZING bodice/dress? Were they still shaving heads to battle fevers in the 80’s? Let’s hear your thoughts?
So, from what I can tell, short hair was actually a thing in the 1800s, not just illness-related or a “selling it to give money to your mother who is going off to nurse your dad” a la Jo March situation. In George Gissing’s book New Grub Street (set in the 1880s) one of the female characters wears her hair short and it’s not seen as weird or anything. She’s a young woman with a scholarly father, so maybe it was a fashion thing that only artsy/bohemian/fashion-forward folks did. Short hair on women also shows up in photographs throughout the 1800s, usually on young people.
Good insight! I like your theory!
I think this is a male in a uniform blouse: I also think the side hair is cut, not pulled back and the front would be a typical styling option for a male. The bar pin in the collar raises a question, but it’s not especially feminine, so… A gussied up school uniform (boarding or military) could use an award pin in the collar.
Possible, but to me there seems to be a corseted breast look to the bodice. What do you think?