This carte de visite portrait features three sisters posing for their portrait at the R. A. Lewis gallery in New York City. Each girl has a fabric band around just above their waist. My first impression was that the band was used by the photographer to discourage the kids from moving around during the photo shoot. I believe it is more likely that the bands are decorative. In fact, the two older girls are wearing identical dresses. In addition, note the handkerchief stuffed into the middle child’s dress pocket. Magnification confirms that it is a handkerchief and not a flaw in the photograph (see scan). Richard A. Lewis, the photographer of this image, was the son of William Lewis, a renownd Manufacturer of daguerreotype and wet plate cameras and other photographic apparatus. Richard opened a Daguerreotype studio in about the early 1840’s. Lewis moved his studio around New York City on several occasions. The Langdon Road directory contends that he was located at the 160 Chatham Street address (listed on this cdv) between 1864 and 1866 and through the 1880’s and 1890’s. (SOLD)
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 
What you call “fabric bands” are actually ribbons used as “belts” to decorate the girls’ dresses. The handkerchief, which strangely is a flat image, appears to have been slightly touched up by the photographer.