Tag: will-o-wisp costume

  • Will-o’-the-Wisp

    (Here are very similar descriptions for a woman’s version and a girl’s version of the same outfit. The electric stars would have been very modern and fashionable, less than a decade after the invention of the light bulb.)

    Women:
    Flowing hair falling over black fashionably-made evening dress; tiny lantern carried in hand; star of electric light in the centre of the forehead.

    Girls:
    Black lantern in hand, hair flowing; black tulle dress with iridescent beads; star over the forehead of electric light.

    Source: Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 5th Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1887.