After hoop-skirts started to go out of fashion, the next major style to emerge was the Bustle Dress.  Often the front of the dress laid flat and the emphasis was on the drapery in the back of the dress.  Fabric could lie gracefully upon the rounded bustle or be bunched into elegant drapery by using vertical tapes that were tied at irregular intervals to hold the fabric in place.

The waistline was lower in the 1870s than the 1860s, with an elongated and tight bodice and a flat fronted skirt.  Low, square necklines were fashionable. Hats were very small and tilted forward to the forehead. Later in the decade wider brimmed ‘picture hats’ were also worn, though still tilted forwards.

The evening dress pictured was made circa 1876-1878 in Great Britain.  It is made out of silk satin, trimmed with silk ribbon and machine-made lace, lined with cotton, and reinforced with whalebone.

The gown characterizes fashionable evening wear for women in the late 1870s.  Based on the elbow-length sleeves and square neckline, it was probably a dinner dress rather than ball gown. Tiers of machine-made lace adorn the skirt and bodice; an over-skirt of satin swathes the front of the dress. The bodice extends into a point below the waistline in front and back. This was a new style, known as a ‘cuirasse’ bodice, which appeared in fashion magazines about 1875 and remained fashionable through the 1880s.