Addie in Arcade, New York
Click here to view it larger.
I don’t claim to be any sort of fashion expert, but the parts of her dress above and below the waist seem to have such a contrast of style and fabric that I suspect they weren’t originally intended for each other, that a new garment was stitched together out of pieces of one or two recycled ones. I understand that was a common enough practice then, but at risk of sounding judgy, I’m not used to seeing examples that seem so obvious. That said, it’s a nicely composed portrait of a lovely young woman. Written on the back of this little carte de visite photo is “Addie – a friend of E. W. C. in Arcade“, and the photographer is C. Young of Arcade, New York.
Pics of Then 
Addie looks to me to be about 15 years old. That skirt is really fancy for someone so young. It also seems quite large for her, although we can’t really tell how tall she is. The dress must have been made for a big occasion of some kind.
I have pictures of women with skirts like that and tops like that, but the combination is unusual to me. Given her age, I was wondering if this was an outfit patched together to accommodate a growth spurt.
Could be. We need a fashion expert to chime in!
It may have been a borrowed skirt, or borrowed top, worn especially for what appears to be a standard “coming of age’ photo that so many young women had in those days…it seems too dressy and cumbersome to have been worn for anything but the photo, and it well may be a ‘studio’ skirt of some sort. What is odd, she is wearing a bow on top of her head. I enlarged the photo, and there is it, perched on her head in the most awkward way; in the enlarged photo she has many rings on, so Im wondering if this was a pre-engagment picture, as well.
Thanks for all these good suggestions. I agree that the skirt stands out as the most incongruous part of the ensemble. I assumed the bow was attached to a ribbon that was looping under her hair as part of that hairdo, but I could be wrong. And interesting thoughts about the rings.