This is a carte
de visite (CDV) of the Empress Eugénie and an excellent image of a crinoline dress.
The following
is from Maurice Fleuty, Memoirs of the Empress Eugenie, 381 – 386 (1920): "When one
speaks of fashion, it is difficult to refrain from criticism and a smile. The
elegant women of today, with their dresses which are more or less tight-fitting
– little by little we are returning to more ample and becoming shapes – cannot
understand how any one could have worn those wire cages called crinolines,
which held up a whole shopful of material! Three ladies so attired used to fill
up the space of a moderate-sized room! What quantities of material were there
and what a variety, -- cunningly arranged draperies, fringes, ruchings, pleats,
real or imitation laces, the whole ending in a long train which it was no easy
task to pull about with one.
There was a
mixture of all styles during the Second Empire. You saw Renaissance sleeves,
Louis XVI panniers, Grecian draperies, and those little basques formerly worn
by ladies at the time of the Fronde. It must be admitted that this was not an
easy task, with such cumbersome and varied elements, to offer an elegant
deportment and to make a charming appearance. Success depended on gracefulness
of gesture, on carriage, on a sliding motion in one’s step, and a supple bust.
In the evening, when shoulders were bared, and the easy movements of the body
were possible, the silhouette was more attractive; and had it not been for the
panniers and the crinolines, the dresses of that day would not have been ugly
for dinner and after-dinner wear.
During the
Second Empire, it was quite a feat to walk when you were forced to carry about
with you such an unnatural rotundity as the crinoline. When you sat down, you
had to guard against the flying up or out of the rebellious wires. To get into
a carriage without making a mess of it required not a little skill, especially
as many dresses were made of very light materials, such as tulle, gauze, and
lace. Husbands and fathers needed to be blessed with a large stock of patience
and restive horses had to be well trained, for considerable time and much fine
calculation were necessary on these trying occasions. It was almost impossible
to shake hands with a child and very difficult to take a gentleman’s arm. In
fact from this moment comes the custom which prevails to-day of not offering
the arm in the drawing room and particularly on the street."