cimorene

"Lady's Walking Dress (Harper's Bazaar, 10.12.1872, p.676)". Blum, Stella, ed. Victorian Fashions & Costumes from Harper's Bazar 1867 - 1898: 1000 Illustrations. Dover, 1974: p.61.

Apparently making dresses entirely out of the materials required for a standard manor house window-dressing was a more common practice in the Victorian era than you'd think.

It strikes me that the popular/advertising art of this era in Victoriana represented a feminine ideal similar to the iconic feudal Japanese woman represented in ukiyo-e prints--a solid column nearly devoid of concave or convex curves, a thick neck, a heavy oval baby-face. The difference is that I think the jaw shape represented in ukiyo-e is in part a consequence of the strict stylistic requirements of the genre. Also, the rather less stylized style of Victorian engraving renders a clearer image of a disturbing mixture of big and imposing, and baby-faced and childish. This was of course the aim of the wealthy Victorian woman - to appear physically mature, yet helpless.