Fashions for July 1848

In the 1840s, the bonnet was the universal choice for outdoor millinery. It became closely fit and the crown became indiscernible from the brim, which curved down around the face, sometimes even so far that it blocked a woman’s vision. Fashion historian Jane Ashelford notes that in the 1840s, “fashion illustrators no longer depicted the fashionable lady as a spirited and animated being, but rather as a timid, reticent and self-effacing person sheltering behind the ever-encroaching brim of her bonnet.”