---
title: "Half-mourning"
description: "Half-mourning was the last stage of Victorian mourning dress: crape dropped, black joined by gray, white, lilac and violet."
type: Glossary
url: https://teazle.art/glossary/half-mourning
published: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
author: "The Teazle editors"
---

# Half-mourning

*Half-mourning was the last stage of Victorian mourning dress: crape dropped, black joined by gray, white, lilac and violet.*

Half-mourning was the lightest stage of mourning dress, the one that led back to ordinary colors. In S. Annie Frost's 1870 description, crape was dropped, and a woman could wear light grays, white with black trimming, lilac, and black lace bonnets with white or violet flowers, with lace collars and jet jewelry set in gold.

## How long did half-mourning last?

It depended on the relationship and on the source. In the Paris rules Frost reprints, a widow could wear gray, violet and white in the last six months of two years. An 1878 compilation gives French widows six weeks of half-mourning after a year of deep and ordinary mourning, and French mourners for a wife, father or mother three months of half-mourning after three months of deep.

## Which colors counted?

The sources differ. The 1878 compilation says half-mourning is “black and white,” and that in the French scheme it is “black and white, gray and violet.” Frost's chapter on color says that lavender takes black for half-mourning, while mauve takes white or black for slight mourning. See [Black, and Not Just Black](/techniques/victorian-mourning-dress-crape-and-stages) for the stages that came before, and [crape](https://teazle.art/glossary/crape.md) for the fabric that was dropped.


## Sources

1. [The Art of Dressing Well (1870), S. Annie Frost](https://www.loc.gov/item/10001027/). Library of Congress (digitized book)
2. [Sensible Etiquette of the Best Society (1878)](https://www.loc.gov/item/31011228/). Library of Congress (digitized book)

Canonical: https://teazle.art/glossary/half-mourning