Clara's 1990 Bridesmaid Dress

This week, we will jump forward in time by a century from the last post, Clara's 1891 Party Dress. Although the dresses are separated by an entire century, many of the major fashion elements of the dresses are similar... the puffy sleeves, the full skirts, the tight bodices and pointed dropped waists. Even the use of lace is paralleled in the two dresses.

The more formal dresses of the late 1980s and early 90s are actually in a romantic style that borrow elements from Victorian styles of the previous century. The romantic style of dress was a sort of reaction to the ripped and sloppy looks of the early 80s.

The lace, puffy sleeves, and ruffles may have been a bit much for the fashion world, and by the end of the 1990s, most styles were pretty casual, and not very extreme.

Clara's dress this week is even more formal than some dresses might be in 1900, since it was intended to be a bridesmaid dress. The original dress is made with a layer of a gauzy peach fabric under a gauzy sheer layer of lacy white.

The original shoes were gold silk, of a shade that would clash with the peach dress. Fortunately, you can select your own colors.  Dyed silk shoes have been poplar for centuries, because they can be dyed the exact color of a dress, making a completely cohesive outfit. Nowadays, matching dyed shoes are usually only worn on very formal occasions like weddings.

To print Clara's dress, use this PDF file:

Clara's Dress 56 (783k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will be available on this blog as long as I continue to post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:

 The Clara Paper Doll (718k)