This well-tailored dress (with a separate bodice and skirt) is made of dark red silk satin and cut velvet. With its high neck and long sleeves it would have been worn in the daytime and, in particular, for making afternoon visits or taking the air in a carriage.
The small puffs on the shoulders point the way to a fashionable enlargement of the sleeves in the early 1890s. By 1895 the very large, leg-of-mutton shape was back in fashion.
http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/index.cfm?UUID=22AB901C-1FE2-4F95-B0D4D9317D2D617C
