BeForever Historical Accuracy: Addy's School Outfit

Hey Followers!
     Sorry it has been so long! I haven't had much down time to myself lately! Recently, American Girl gave out 20% off coupons in their catalogs. I ended up getting two of them so I got some goodies! One of which was Addy's beautiful new BeForever School outfit. So lets get right to it, Is this outfit historically accurate?

The Layers of this dress remind me of Addy's

       There is a huge reason why I LOVE the fashion of the Civil War....Detail! The more details on a gown in the 1860's, the better. Civil War gowns were very elaborate, covered in lace, ribbons, ruffles, embroidery, fringe...some dresses had so many flounces that the original fabric of the dress could no longer be seen.
      One very popular detail; especially for children's clothing was military inspired, the use of braided trim. The style was influenced by the braided trim on the military officers uniforms. The braiding on the uniforms were different according to rank. This type of embroidery is often called soutache. Addy's school dress is detailed with black soutache trim.
      There were two main types of dresses in Addy's time, Day Dresses and Evening Gowns. The day gowns had wide pagoda sleeves worn over under sleeves called engageantes. Day dresses had high necklines made of lace, tatted collars, or chemisettes.

Sleeves Similar to Addy's

      Evening gowns had low necklines and short sleeves that were accompanied by gloves or mitts.
      Addy's school dress resembles the day dress. It features the high neckline with the collar. Her wide sleeves are partnered with the engageantes.

      Clothing became more vibrant with color around the civil war. Colorful detailed fabrics were highly sought after for every 1860's fashionista. Certain colors of textiles became more available with the invention of mauveine. Mauveine is an aniline dye first invented by a young Chemist named William Henry Perkin in the mid 1850's. Before this discovery, fabrics in colors like purple and blue involved a very difficult process, making these colored fabrics extremely expensive. (Could possibly be the reason that the color purple is often related with royalty??) The invention of mauveine made fabric dying to produce these colors less difficult and more affordable. So the possibility that Addy would have a dress that is blue in color would definitely be plausible.
      So based on this info, Is Addy's BeForever School Outfit historically accurate? Absolutely!

Detail of the neckline and soutache trim

Detail of Soutache

Detail of the wide pagoda sleeves with the lower engageantes sleeves 

Beautiful layered skirt, Also a popular 1860's trend!

              Thanks so much for reading! I have had overwhelming positive responses to this blog and I am so happy that it brings so much enjoyment to my followers because I have LOVED writing these posts! Stay tuned for more posts VERY soon and be sure to follow me on Instagram @faithful.friends.forever.be and find out first about new posts!