Fanny Seward's dress

[L Verge]

Lavender and purple were colors used when coming out of full mourning - or could be worn to funerals of associates for whom one would not go into full mourning. Fanny would have still been in full mourning for her mother at the time of her own death, I believe.

There is something in me that says this dress is too "frivolous" and fancy to be part of a mourning ensemble... I suspect that Fanny liked lavender and needed a party dress sometime before the horrors of April 1865.