Object: Dress
Date: 1803-1805
Medium: Cotton muslin
Country: USA
Credit Line: Museum purchase
Object number: P91.95.2
DescriptionEmpire style dress in sheer white muslin with vertical gauze bands, tambour embroidered with floral motifs on the bands and sprigs allover; wide round neck, short sleeves, and long trained skirt with CB pleating.
Label Text:White chemise gowns were radically simple in appearance and egalitarian in their cut and color. With its slender elegance of line, this style was intended to reference classical drapery and emphasized a truth of form. Fashion historians have noted that the chemise dress was “not as simple in semiotics as it was in shape.”
In Collection(s)
Exhibitions:
- Minimalism / Maximalism: Fashion Extremes
- Fashion & Textile History Gallery First Rotation
- Night and Day