The 1870s and 1880s are the decades associated with the bustle, a flexible steel and tape construction to support the protruding back of a skirt. As it was the main feature of dresses, fashion plates often showed women in profile. This bustle dates from the 1880s.
The bustle had its ups and downs. It was large in the first half of the 1870s, then almost disappeared until about 1880 when it began to rise again. By the mid-1880s, it was jutting straight out at right angles to the back of the body. This was accentuated by the sides of the skirt which hung straight down. By 1890, the bustle was out of fashion and only small pads supported the back of the skirt.
The bodice was cut with a short peplum after 1870. This lengthened year by year until, by 1875, it extended to the hips as in this dress of about 1876. Called a cuirass bodice, it was, by then, so close fitting that it required a tailor, rather than a dressmaker, to construct it. The bustle is little more than an arrangement of draperies, falling in folds, like a waterfall. This effect has been achieved in this dress by a length of silk stitched down the skirt at intervals. It extends into a train. Trains were fashionable for both day and evening wear in the 1870s.
The deep side pocket you see here came into fashion in 1876 but lasted only two or three years. It must have been a pickpocket's delight, being so near the back and therefore out of sight. This silk dress has many stitch marks in the skirt, showing that it was remade to keep it in fashion.
