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Collections

Woman's Dresscirca 1830

Not on view
Two mannequins in early 19th-century women's dress: left in a pale corset and white petticoat; right in a full white dress with purple sash, matching bonnet, and embroidered pouch
Museum mannequin dressed in early 19th-century ensemble: white muslin dress with puffed sleeves and tiered skirt, lavender satin sash tied at the waist, wide-brimmed straw bonnet with purple ribbon, purple embroidered reticule handbag, and purple flat slippers, displayed against a black background.
White cotton textile with white-on-white embroidery featuring curling feather and paisley motifs, including cutwork sections that create delicate negative space throughout the design.
Close-up of white cotton textile with densely worked white-on-white embroidery featuring floral and feathery botanical motifs, including cutwork and satin stitch details along a sleeve or bodice seam.
Close-up of white-on-white embroidered muslin textile, featuring raised satin-stitch botanical motifs including drooping branches and a scalloped leaf form with broderie anglaise eyelets.
Title
Woman's Dress
Place Made
Europe
Date Made
circa 1830
Medium
Cotton plain weave (muslin) with cutwork and cotton embroidery
Dimensions
Center back length: 45 3/4 in. (116.21 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.2007.211.739
Classification
Costumes
Collecting Area
Costume and Textiles
Curatorial Notes

The fullness of the sleeves on this dress was distributed through the length of the arm in a style called balloon à l’imbécile (silly) or à la folle (foolish). The hem was finished by folding and tacking the wide scalloped edge to the outside, revealing the embroidery.

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.
  • Örmen, Catherine. L'Art de la Mode. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2015.

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