Caraco
A caraco is a style of woman's jacket that was fashionable from the mid-18th to early 19th centuries. Caracos were thigh-length and opened in front. Like gowns of the period, the back of the caraco could be fitted to the waist or could hang in pleats from the shoulder in a "sack-back". Caracos were generally made of printed linen or cotton.[1][2]
The caraco emerged as an informal style in France in the 1760s,[1] worn with a petticoat and, if open in front, a stomacher or decorative stays. The English caraco was generally closed in front. Early caracos had three-quarter sleeves, and later ones long sleeves. A version with a wrap front, called a bed jacket or short gown, became the standard working woman's costume of the late 18th century.[1]
Notes
References
- Cumming, Valerie, C. W. Cunnington and P. E. Cunnington. The Dictionary of Fashion History, Berg, 2010, ISBN 9781847885335
- Takeda, Sharon Sadako, and Kaye Durland Spilker, Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700 - 1915, Prestel USA (2010), ISBN 9783791350622