Before the mid-nineteenth century, tailoring was largely reserved for men’s coats. Riding habits were one of the few women’s garments available in a tailored style. Gradually demand grew for stylish, practical and hard-wearing outfits suitable for a wide range of outdoor activities including shopping, travelling and walking. By the 1870s the tailored look for women had really begun to take hold. Cutting systems used on men’s suits were transferred to fashionable skirts and bodices and the resulting styles were rapidly adopted. Fashion magazines and cutting journals trumpeted the superior skill of the tailor whose methods of manipulating cloth captured the full beauty of the female form. This bodice shows how the tailor has modified his techniques to suit the fashionable silhouette. With special attention to measuring, cutting and making he has moulded the cloth to follow the curves of the bust, hollow of the waist and the prominence of the hips. The outer cloth was fitted to the figure with the aid of a canvas interlining constructed with darts and seams to give the required contours. Both were skilfully pressed into shape using a variety of irons and a damp rag which was necessary to produce steam. The rich colour and luxurious velvet decoration heightens the jacket's feminine appeal which is capped by full sleeves in true 1890s style. Woman's jacket and skirt of superfine wool trimmed with velvet and braid, Great Britain, ca. 1895 Woman's jacket with matching skirt. Made of purple superfine wool trimmed with green velvet and braid. The jacket is hip length, and seamed to fit the waist. It has long sleeves, and wider at the shoulders where they are pleated into the armhole. The jacket has a small round collar with revers, faced with velvet and bound with black braid. The facing continues down the centre front where there is an edge to edge fastening from waist to hip of alternately fixed black metal hooks and eyes. Down the centre is each jacket front is an inset of green velvet with a curve at the breast and hip, outlined in braid and edged with a small bronze bead trim. There is a similar trimming at the back of the jacket. The cuffs are similarly treated. The jacket is lined in shot purple and green silk, and boned at all the seams. Flared skirt and with a centre front panel, and a plaquet at the side front fastening with hooks and eyes with a pocket inserted. Lined in green glazed cotton with a frill of the same silk used to line the jacket stitched inside the hem. There are tape tabs for attaching the skirt to a hanger.