Both the hostess and the women wear their most elaborate costume for such an entertainment- decollete, short-sleeved, and a long train.
"The Book of Good Manners"
W. C. Green
I do not know just what the reader would expect me to say in defence of the full-length figure of a lady in decollete and trained evening dress, who enters from the tomb toward the spectator as if she were coming into a drawing-room after dinner.
"Roman Holidays and Others"
W. D. Howells
Fashion had decreed that the correct hour for dancing was 11 A.M., and matinees dansantes were regularly given at the hotels, our grandmothers appearing in decollete muslin frocks adorned with broad sashes, and disporting themselves gayly until the dinner hour.
"Worldly Ways and Byways"
Eliot Gregory