1830s in Western fashion

[1] The prevalent trend of Romanticism from the 1820s through the mid-1840s, with its emphasis on strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience and its recognition of the picturesque, was reflected in fashion as in other arts.

Items of historical dress including neck ruffs, ferronnières (jeweled headbands worn across the forehead), and sleeves based on styles of earlier periods were popular.

There was an emphasis on sloping shoulders and large, full sleeves over much of the arm, with a small cuff at the wrist, which are distinctive to day dresses of the 1830s.

[6] The fashionable feminine figure, with its sloping shoulders, rounded bust, narrow waist and full hips, was emphasized in various ways with the cut and trim of gowns.

Gowns had very wide necklines and short, puffed sleeves reaching to the elbow from a dropped shoulder, and were worn with mid-length gloves.

[8] Morning dresses generally had high necklines, and shoulder width was emphasized with tippets or wide collars that rested on the gigot sleeves.

[9] Early 1830s hair was parted in the center and dressed in elaborate curls, loops and knots extending out to both sides and up from the crown of the head.

[10] Bonnets with wide semicircular brims framed the face for street wear, and were heavily decorated with trim, ribbons, and feathers.

Married women wore a linen or cotton cap for daywear, trimmed with lace, ribbon, and frills, and tied under the chin.

Although its origin can be traced back to the traditional Spanish peineta comb, the peinetón derived into a different headpiece altogether, both for its physical characteristics as well as for the symbolic meanings around its use.

[16][17] Riding habits consisted of a high-necked, tight-waisted jacket with the fashionable dropped shoulder and huge gigot sleeves, worn over a tall-collared shirt or chemisette, with a long matching petticoat or skirt.

The paletot was knee-length, with three cape-collars and slits for the arms, and the pardessus was half or three-quarter length coat with a defined waist and sleeves.

[19] In this time, men's fashion plates continue to show an ideal silhouette with broad shoulders, and a narrow, tightly cinched waist.

In the 1830s, men wore dark coats, light trousers, and dark cravats for daywear. Women's sleeves reached their ultimate width in the gigot sleeve. Here, the boys (on holiday in the mountains) wear buff-colored belted knee-length tunics with yokes and full sleeves over trousers. The girls wear white dresses with colored aprons. The Family of Dr. Josef August Eltz, Austria, 1835.
1833 Fashion Plate: evening gown (left) and two morning dresses. The lady on the right wears a fichu - pelerine ( tippet ) .
By the later 1830s, fullness was moving from the upper to the lower sleeves. This morning dress of 1836–40 features shirring on the fitted upper sleeves; Victoria and Albert Museum .
This portrait shows the pleated panels of fabric that trim the gown around the bust and shoulders, and the method of gathering fullness in the large sleeves. 1832.
Jane Digby wears her hair in corkscrew curls on the sides. The back of her hair is braided and pinned to her head, 1831.
Fashionable head-dresses and hair accessories, 1830.
Marie Raffenberg wears her hair with curls and a high topknot, 1831.
Sleeve plumpers, corset, chemise and petticoat of the 1830s, Los Angeles County Museum of Art .
Shoes made of silk and leather, 1830s.
A group of Danish artists in Rome, 1837. Frock coats, fly-front trousers (some with straps under the instep), tall hats, and dark cravats are characteristic of the period.
Men's fashion silhouette of 1837 shows broad shoulders and a narrow, tightly cinched waist.