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Collections

Summer Dresscirca 1830

Not on view
White cotton empire-waist dress with voluminous puffed sleeves and embroidered tiered hem, displayed on a white mannequin against a dark gray background
Close-up detail photograph of a white garment, showing densely gathered and pleated sheer fabric radiating outward from a smocked bodice seam, lit against a black background.
Detail of white cotton textile with white-on-white embroidery, featuring dense floral and feathery leaf motifs, broderie anglaise cutwork with needle lace infill, and a gathered ruffle at the lower edge.
White-on-white embroidered textile with a central oval net-ground medallion surrounded by radiating satin-stitch fronds and broderie anglaise eyelets on linen ground.
White cotton textile with broderie anglaise embroidery; a large feathered bird motif at center, surrounded by leafy sprays, with cutwork eyelets and a central area of needle-lace mesh.
Close-up of white broderie anglaise embroidery on cotton, featuring a central bird motif with radiating feathers, surrounded by leafy sprays, with cutwork eyelets and a small section of needle lace filling.
Title
Summer Dress
Place Made
England
Date Made
circa 1830
Medium
Cotton plain weave with cotton cutwork embroidery (broderie anglaise)
Dimensions
Center back length: 47 1/2 in. (120.65 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.2007.211.740
Classification
Costumes
Collecting Area
Costume and Textiles
Curatorial Notes

The exaggerated silhouette of this Romantic-era dress was achieved with extremely voluminous leg-of-mutton or gigot sleeves—full at the upper arm and fitted at the forearm—that create a shoulder width equal in size to that of the skirt’s flounced hemline.

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.
  • Edwards, Lydia. How to Read a Dress: a Guide to Changing Fashion from the 16th to the 20th Century. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.