The study utilized womens dress fashions from a university collection and chairs from local museum and historic house collections in order to evaluate and compare characteristics of the elements of design of line, shape, and form in the objects. The objectives were to develop a visual analysis checklist using the elements of design as a framework to compare womens dress fashions and chairs; and to explore the aesthetic relationship between womens dress fashions and chairs of the period 1880-1889 using the data collected. The hypotheses stated that womens dress fashions and chairs of the 1880s exhibit similar characteristics of line, shape, and form. Data indicated a strong relationship between line, inconclusive results for shape, and associations only between the categories for form. Major findings included a dominance of restrained curves, horizontal and vertical lines, sharp edged lines, and geometric unequally sided forms.