What Should Be Worn and What Should Not

Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine January 1864

WHAT SHOULD BE WORN, AND WHAT SHOULD NOT. 

Novelty is ever one of the principal charms of the toilette; even those who care but little for personal adornment, and are apathetic on the subject of the latest arrival of fashions from Paris, seldom fail to make the inquiry from their dressmaker when issuing orders, “ Whether there is anything new ?" Such is the love of the toilette at the present day, and so great, indeed, almost fabulous, are the sums annually expended upon it, that those dressmakers who make a study of their business might always be prepared to answer in the affirmative; for whether their customers choose to adopt it or not, there is always something new. The demand is great, and, thanks to inventive brains, the supply keeps pace with it. The French Court, with the fair Empress at its head, leads the way, and finds a host of imitators and‘followers in almost every eccentricity it chooses to adopt; and these followers are not confined to France alone, but may be found in every capital of the civilised world.
Sometimes it happens that, for the sake of change, an old fashion is taken again into favor, not precisely in the same proportions it formerly assumed, but the same style, with some slight modification...

TL,DR: Basques are back, but now cut with a waist seam. Flounces are in...and not in; mind how they are arranged! Also, crinoline shape is round for day wear, trained for evening. Dresses should be trimmed with bands of color-coordinated velvet or plush or those nice chenille fringes... Ball dresses have lots and lots and lots of light, diaphanous ruching.