Delineator Magazine - 1888 Hall's Bazar Portable and Adjustable Dress and Skirt Forms

"Endorsed and recommended by all Fashion Publishers as being a long-felt want admirably supplied."
And this must be true because:
"We consider these the most perfect Forms ever introduced, and cheerfully recommend them to our customers everywhere. THE BUTTERICK PUBLISHING COMPANY [LIMITED]"

MISS MEDDLESOME (to her mamma).--Ah! We have now discovered the secret or her gracefully draped dresses, which have been the envy or our lives. Look! She has HALL'S BAZAR FORM. We shall send for one at once! It can be adjusted to fit either of us.

MISS FASHION PLATE (soliloquising).-The effect Is simply charming. It would have been Impossible to produce this result without HALL'S BAZAR PORTABLE FORM. I can now make over and drape my own dresses and not become worn out standing for the dressmaker. This Form was a happy thought, and is worth more than Its weight In gold to ladies easily fatigued by standing.

Delineator Magazine - 1888 Pattern for a Donkey

This is a very realistic looking donkey!
"The parts are joined by seams which are so curved as to produce "a fine figger of a donkey"."

Delineator Magazine - 1888 "Styles For Little Folks"

This is a group of childs clothing, mostly girls dresses and some infant gowns. Note the military influence, sashes, cording, buttons, and the little boy in his kilt has his bugle ready!"

Delineator Magazine - 1888 Patterns for Dolls

We don't have the typical fancy girl doll and her fancy outfit. We get a boy doll, his sailor uniform and the nightgowns and underwear for babies and "Lady" dolls. But look at these. The details and the work..."may be trimmed as simply or as elaborately as little mamma desires".

Delineator Magazine - 1888 Electric Corsets, Florance Ladies' Waist and Madam Foy's Skirt Supporting Corset

So many choices! Go for "health and comfort" in a "Graceful Form" skirt supporter, use "An embodiment of hygienic principles in a Ladies' Waist", or even go Electric!

Delineator Magazine - 1888 Hats! Toques, Bonnets, Turbans

"The beauty of the materials this season - the "piece stuffs" as the milliners call them - has given special prominence to hats and bonnets with soft, full crowns. They can be made demure in cloth or quite gorgeous in gold brocade, and the trimming may be provided by dainty wings in gold or silver, loops of ribbon, fancy aigrettes or clasps, ect.

Feathers are arranged in coronet bands to encircle turbans, and they make a very handsome trimming. The golden pheasant, the merle and the peacock are robbed of their finest plumes to crown the chapeaux of womankind. The large hats obtain, but on a windy day a small closely fitting chapeau is a desideratum.

The capote in every possible size and outline finds many admirers. Probably the newest is that which has a brim not unlike the Directoire and yet retains the close, compact shape of the capote at the sides. The very close capote, however, is still worn by those who like it."

Delineator Magazine - 1888 Would You Like To Dress Stylishly?

If you do want to dress stylishly you should get your wardrobe custom made from National Cloak Company and use some of these amazing trims from the Kursheedt Manufacturing Co.!

Delineator Magazine - 1888 "Ladies Four Gore Skirt" - An Inside View

Here's a chance to see the inside of one of these amazing skirts and the description from the magazine.

"No. 2375.-This skirt is portrayed made of dress goods and plainly finished. Its three dart-fitted gores and full back-breadth are shaped to produce a graceful, even hanging; and across the back-breadth two reeds are adjusted in casings and tied into curves by tapes or elastics. A belt finishes the top of the skirt, and the placket opening is made at the left side-back seam. A small pad bustle is a feature of the skirt; it is shaped in two parts that are narrowest at the top and rounding at the bottom. A filling of moss or curled hair is used, and the parts are caught together in upholstery fashion. The top of the bustle is caught to the belt.

This skirt is the fashionable shape for Autumn and Winter toilettes, and will be worn without an adjustable tournure. It accords in its hanging and in the arrangement of its pad and steels with the fashionable arrangements of drapery and also with the new styles of long top-garments. All kinds of seasonable dress good and also plain, corded, striped and figured silks, velvets, etc., will make up handsomely by the mode. Trimming may be added if desired, flat applications being especially favored.

We have pattern No. 2375 in nine sizes for ladies from twenty to thirty-six inches waist measure. To make the garment for a lady of medium size, will require five yards and three eighths of material twenty-two inches wide, or three yards and a-half thirty-six inches wide, or three yards forty-four inches wide. Of fifty-four inches wide goods, two yards and a-half will suffice. Price of pattern, 1s,. 3d. or 30 cents."

Delineator Magazine - 1888 "Health Braided Wire Dress Forms"

Wow. Just wow.

Delineator Magazine - 1888 Ladies Costume and Toilette

Looking at these I was thinking about storage. These are dresses and hats are huge and must have had to hung in some sort of closet. And go into suitcases. And all those trims! How did this work? Wouldn't things get crushed? And did you just have an army of laundresses?

This is Butterick 2387, also shown below.

This "Ladies Toilette" - a Basque and a Walking Skirt. Don't miss her bird hat!

Delineator Magazine - 1888 "Ladies Top Garments"

This group is coats, cloaks, wraps. They must have been made of heavy fabrics and weighed a ton. Suggested fabrics are wools and velvets. And the trims were ribbons and silks. I can't imagine they were very practical in rain or snow.

These are labeled 434, 435, 436, 437.
The "Ladies Wrap" shown in 434, Butterick 2379 is below.

The "Ladies Walking Skirt" with 434 is Butterick 2349.

Number 434 is "Ladies Irish Peasant Cloak" Butterick pattern 2362.

In 436 we see a "Ladies Cloak" with subtle differences, Butterick 2365.

For 437 it's Butterick 2386, a "Ladies Wrap" with otter fur trim.

Delineator Magazine - 1888 Ladies Evening Costumes

These are all from the same pattern and "for a lady of medium size, it will require seventeen yards and a-forth of material twenty-two inches wide, or eight yards and three-fourths forty-four inches wide." Wow.

Delineator Magazine - 1888 Ladies Costume, Basque, Walking Skirt

I really encourage you to click on each picture twice, because I don't want you to miss any details. Then look for the differences in the two versions. It's amazing how different fabrics and trims change these.

The first two pictures (labeled 428 and 429) are front and back of the same Ladies Costume, Butterick 2360, also shown in two views below.

The third outfit (labeled 430) shows a Basque that is Butterick 2364, and a Ladies Walking Skirt which is Butterick 2363.