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Scraps of Fashion
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Something to keep in mind when writing fashion into your 1632verse stories is that the down-timers don't think their fashions are ugly. From the point of view of the twentieth century, the up-timers will see many of the garments the highest classes wear as stiff, awkward and, yes, ugly. But then, to the truly fashion conscious modern mind, anything more than a season old is passé and ugly.
As far as the up-time citizens are concerned, the nearest thing to high fashion in the closets of the Grantville girls and women are prom dresses, bridesmaid's dresses (which are very similar in many ways) and a few treasured wedding dresses.
So, more things to keep in mind, this time about these dresses. The girls wearing the prom dresses are young, with parents who are often willing to exercise veto power over their daughters' more extreme choices. The bridesmaid's dresses are rarely chosen by their wearers, although brides often agonize over the choice, trying to find a single style and color that will suit the entire party while still complementing the wedding as a whole.
Nonetheless, the fashion followers of both the seventeenth and twentieth centuries have a number of things in common:
A love for fine fabrics.
A love for color.
A need to be on the cutting edge of fashion.
A love for lace and trim
An abiding passion for black.
Fine Fabrics
Modern proms are held in the late spring, in venues with central heating, so chiffon, taffeta and satin are more common fabrics than velvets, brocades and wool. Some of these are stretch versions, woven with lycra for a form-fitting effect. Clearly, lycra and other manmade fibers will be unavailable to the fashionistas of the seventeenth century. The popular fashion fabrics of the seventeenth century emphasize velvets, brocades and satins. Both then and now satin is admired for its smooth and glossy surface, brocade for its intricate woven patterns and velvet for its lush nap and rich colors.
Velvet can be cut, crushed or voided as well as plain. The difference between cut and voided velvet is subtle from a distance. Patterns are created in cut velvet by cutting areas of the nap very short. The patterns on voided velvet, on the other hand, are created when the cloth is woven, by leaving certain areas un-napped. Some twentieth century velvets are known as burnt velvets. They are created by using chemicals to dissolve areas of the nap while leaving the base fabric unharmed. Velour is a modern knit fabric with a velvet look.
Chiffon is a relatively modern (late-nineteenth century) translucent fabric that comes in varying weights. It is often used for sheer sleeves or overskirts; often glitter or crystals are applied to provide shimmer. While chiffon itself is not available in the seventeenth century, sheer, finely woven silks are (for example, take a look at the lace collar in Paulus Moreelse's "Portrait of a Young Woman, which can be found at http://www.wga.hu/art/m/moreelse/young_w.jpg) 
Taffeta is similar to satin in that it is known for its gloss. However, rather than having a smooth surface, the warp and weft are often visible. A commonly seen modern taffeta is moire, which refers to a shifting pattern on the fabric reminiscent of water stains.
All these fabrics—satin, brocade, velvet, taffeta and chiffon—were originally made from silk (although velvet might have a warp of linen) but by the late-twentieth century were made from man-made fibers almost exclusively. Certainly the silk versions were more expensive and much more difficult to find for the average American.
Down-timers also wore a lot of wool. Upper classes didn't wear the coarsely woven, scratchy fabric that most up-timers will think of, when they think of wool. Seventeenth-century English wools were luxury fabrics, of very high quality and much in demand.
Color
Black aside, both up-time and down-time high fashions come in just about any color you can name.
Dye recipes in the seventeenth century were valuable and dye masters guarded them closely. Generally, reds and purples were the rarest colors, while browns and yellows were the most common. The dyes varied widely in fastness.[n1] White was a difficult color. It was achieved only through repeated bleaching, and the bleaching techniques of the time could rarely achieve a true white when starting from a linen base. It was also an impractical color in a time when roads were unpaved, animals were everywhere and houses were heated largely by means of soot-producing fireplaces.
The riotous blooming of the up-time chemical dye industry, after the discovery of the first coal tar dye in the nineteenth century, means the up-timers are used to having fabric of any fiber in any color imaginable. Not only that, they are used to colors that are controllable and repeatable. They expect colors to be fast and not fade, although even the most color-fast modern dyes will fade if exposed to sunlight. Then as now, sunlight is the major enemy of bright colors.
Cutting Edge Fashion
Prom dresses come in all sizes, colors and styles, but if you look at enough of them, certain patterns emerge. First, there are lot more long dresses than short ones. Second, strapless dresses (held up by boning) have been in fashion since the early 1990s. Third, most of them are actual dresses, not skirt and top combinations. At the same time, it would be a mistake to think all prom dresses look alike or are demure. They might be loosely draped halters, midriff-baring tops paired with long skirts, or sleeveless, nearly backless, gowns.
Down-time high-fashion dresses always have long skirts, often have tightly fitted, boned bodices with long sleeves and generally consist of skirt and top combinations. Yet the prom (and bridesmaid's) dresses look nothing like them. Long prom dresses might have full or narrow skirts, but the skirts, even if full, are fitted at the waist. They swoop in long, smooth, body-hugging falls from bust to waist to floor. Often the horizontal seam is raised or lowered off the natural waist to fool the eye. Many are lined so as to eliminate the need for a petticoat, the waist band of which would spoil the flow of fabric down the body. When not lined, a close-fitting, full-length slip might be worn underneath—or nothing more than basic underwear and pantyhose.
Some prom dresses use princess seams to eliminate the waist seam entirely. This is a style that flatters many body types and can create clinging, well-fitted bodices without boning or darts.
Strapless dressing must still use boning, but the boning in a prom or wedding dress exists to mold the fabric to the body; not the body to the fabric. Boning keeps the strapless gown up, smooths the curve from bust to waist and can help create cleavage where nature hasn't obliged. Most twentieth-century boning is plastic, which can be a problem or an asset. Plastic boning is, well, plastic—it bends and flexes. Breathing and bending down are rarely a problem. On the other hand, as it warms, plastic boning loses its strength. It sags and falls away from the body.
That ends the preview. Probably in the middle of a sentence. Sorry.