ABSTRACT
BY the end of the seventeenth century mourning dress had become so fashionable that
Samuel Pepys, for one, with his fondness for beautiful women, occasionally found it a
positive attraction. In 1666 he commented on the appearance of ‘my Lady Falmouth…
In the eighteenth
century this trend towards fashionable mourning wear continued and the differences
between mourning and non-mourning dress narrowed even further. They were both cut to
the same style, differing only in colour, fabric and accessories. For women, sack dresses,
worn over side-hoops or ‘paniers’ were fashionable for much of the century. They were
cut either in the French style (à la française), with loose pleating falling from the
shoulders to the floor at the back, or (à l’anglaise) in the English manner, with the back pleats neatly stitched down as far as the waistline. Trimmings, such as lace ruffles at neck and cuff, embroidered stomachers, silver and gilt lace, appliqué work, and tiny silk
aprons, were particularly popular during the Rococo period. None of these were
permitted for mourning wear. Mourning dresses had to be in plain, dull black or, more
rarely, white fabric.
