History's Runway: A Velvet Mantle, c. 1840

The Victoria & Albert Museum

The ensemble shown here perfectly demonstrates the fashionable style of about 1840 with a fuller skirt hanging separate from the bodice with its ‘bishop’-style sleeves and off-the-shoulder neckline. This style was inspired by portraiture of the mid to late Seventeenth Century.   The finishing touch for this ensemble and many like  it is an appliquéd velvet mantle embroidered with flowers.

This mantle of a deep wine colored velvet is  demonstrative of the type of cloak fashionable in the 1840s.  A full-length cloak, it is gathered onto a circular yoke, over which hangs a a rounded collar with a deep, dramatic point at the back. Slits allow for the arms and the hem is curved up at each side seam.

The neck is stitched and adorned with a matching cord with taselled ends to fasten at the front. Tassels and rosettes trim the vents at the arm seams and the point of the collar. Each of the edges are bound with pink, wine, white and green satin rouleaux as well as satin stitch embroidery in silk in shades of green, pink and yellow in a rose design. The collar is further adorned with a trail of buds as full roses cascade at the hem and arm slits.  Lined in rose silk, this opulent cloak was made professionally in France.