Woman's Dress1845-1849

Not on view

Full-length 19th-century silk dress on a mannequin, cream with scattered lavender floral sprigs, fitted bodice, full bell skirt, lace collar, and straw bonnet

Mid-19th-century dress displayed on a mannequin in three-quarter view: cream silk gown with a full crinoline skirt printed with scattered purple and green floral sprigs, fitted bodice with lace trim, long sleeves, and a tan poke bonnet with ribbon ties.

Mid-19th-century cream silk dress displayed on a headless mannequin, featuring a woven damask ground printed with purple morning glories and green hummingbirds, a wide bertha collar and tiered sleeves trimmed with looped needle lace, and a fitted bodice with radiating pleats converging at the waist.

Close-up detail of a cream silk dress with a printed pattern of green and purple hummingbirds and flowers, trimmed with delicate needle lace at the collar, cuffs, and bodice seams; gathered skirt visible at lower right.

Detail of two textile panels side by side: left, cream fabric with tone-on-tone woven or embroidered floral and tree motifs; right, printed floral design on white ground featuring pendant green and red bell-shaped flowers, purple leaves, and red dotted curving stems.

Detail of cream silk textile with woven damask floral pattern at left and printed design of an exotic bird in green, red, and yellow with trailing dotted red tendrils at right.

Close-up detail of a cream linen textile with tightly pleated lower section revealing glimpses of multicolored floral embroidery in purple, green, and red beneath the folds; delicate needle lace appliqué visible at upper left.

Title: Woman's Dress
Place Made: England
Date Made: 1845-1849
Medium: Silk plain weave with warp-float patterning, printed, silk lace and silk passementerie
Dimensions: Center back length: 56 1/4 in. (142.875 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne
Accession Number: M.2007.211.744
Classification: Costumes
Collecting Area: Costume and Textiles
Curatorial Notes: By the mid-1840s, dresses with sloped shoulders, tight bodices with fitted sleeves, and fuller skirts mirrored the similarly constricting social norms of the early Victorian woman. Bodices often included rows of pleats extending over the shoulder to the waist in a pronounced V-shape that pointed to the wide, cartridge-pleated skirt.
Selected Bibliography: Takeda, Sharon Sadako and Kaye Durland Spilker. Fashioning Fashion: Deux Siècles de Mode Européenne, 1700-1915. Paris: Arts Décoratifs; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: Delmonico Books-Prestel, 2013.
Takeda, Sharon Sadako and Kaye Durland Spilker. Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2010.
Takeda, Sharon Sadako and Kaye Durland Spilker. Fashioning Fashion: Europäische Moden, 1700-1915. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: Prestel, 2012.

Woman's Dress1845-1849

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