A sleeve can impact the perceived width, height, and balance of a whole garment. While a slim sleeve will emphasize the center of the body, a wider sleeve may widen the shoulder or add bulk to the upper arm, elbow, or wrist. Given how prominent the sleeve is, it’s a potential clue for dating old dresses. Sleeve style won’t tell you what period a dress is from, but it will tell you where to focus your research.
I think that the main problem is that “big sleeves” is not a very specific enough term. Two dresses might have very big sleeves, but they might be shaped differently. One might have lots of fullness at the top of the sleeve and taper down tightly. The other might stay wide all the way to the bottom of the sleeve and only get narrower around the wrist. Or, one might seem like a smooth shape while another uses gathers, pleats, stuffing, or extra fabric. Rather than guessing the style of the sleeve right away, you should describe where the fullness begins, where the fullest part is, and how it connects to the rest of the garment.
This means that you should also consider the shape of the shoulder and waist of the dress. A very puffy top part of a sleeve along with a very thin waist might make the body look unusually narrow in relation to the shoulders. A lower shoulder seam might make the top half of the body look wider, even if the sleeve isn’t very puffy. Male fashion might have the shoulder tailored rather than looking like a giant ball. This is important because you don’t want a single feature to throw off your interpretation of the other features.
To test this, find three photos of people from different time periods and cut the pictures so that you can only see the torso. Write a description of the sleeves without saying what time period they’re from. Include things like shoulder shape, volume, widest point, cuff style, and how the sleeve relates to the rest of the top. Then, put the three in the correct order and compare them to the actual dates given. If you got it wrong, try to figure out which sleeve feature made you think it was a different date than it actually was. That will teach you more than just memorizing the correct order.
This can also help you figure out why a particular sleeve is shaped the way it is. Materials, lining, padding, tailoring, gathering, etc. can all influence how the sleeve holds its shape, and it may look very different than if it were made out of a simpler fabric. Sleeve shape might also change in one direction while the neckline, skirt, or pants change in a completely different direction. This is why using more than one factor to determine the approximate time period is better. If a sleeve looks like it might be from a certain era, verify that with the waist, top length, skirt volume, closure, and general shape of the garment.
However, you should also watch out for older styles being imitated later. It’s possible that the later version could use an older style sleeve but with a different waist or garment construction. Also, keep in mind the context of the image, as a fashion plate and a photograph of a museum piece might represent the shape differently. Instead of asking if a sleeve looks like a big or small one, ask yourself where the bulk is located, how it attaches to the shoulder, and how it ends at the wrist. These three factors will help you translate a decorative feature into historical evidence.
