Some background: from 1867 to 1907, a weekly periodical by the name Judy; or the London serio-comic journal was published. One of its regular cartoonists was A. Chasemore, who drew the "Fashion for the week". This illustration was generally a fantasy concoction; nothing anyone would have really worn except perhaps in a theatrical or masquerade ball. The costumes were sometimes allegorical, sometimes political, and mostly just whimsical. And since they were drawn in ink and published in black & white, sky's the limit on the color interpretations!
The model for the outfits was just an "everywoman" but I have taken the liberty of naming her after the publication. Judy the magazine, of course, was a competing journal to the much more popular Punch.
Since I am posting plates for Reconstruction every two weeks, I will try to post Judy in between. My access to the Judy journal is all over the map, so I am not drawing her outfits in any particular order. I started with Volume 26 by pure randomness. It was the first volume that I was able to absolutely confirm the "Fashion for the week" illustration, but I may find it started before. In fact, I skipped the January 14th issue by accident and will go back to pick it up in the next post.
Click the image to download the .pdf. I haven't decided yet whether I will build Judy her own gallery. We'll see how she goes.