Sleeve puffs
c. 1829
Cotton
Museum purchase
Object number2023.28.1
Sleeve supports shaped the leg-of-mutton sleeves of the 1820s and 1830s. When voluminous sleeves returned to fashion at the end of the nineteenth century, such supports were considered obsolete. As an 1894 New York Times article declared, “we do not quite follow the absurdities of those sensible old days and wear bags of feathers upon our arms.”
DescriptionPair of down filled cotton sleeve puffs or plumpers, off white plain weave cotton, crescent shaped and gathered into wide self band around armhole and narrow band at upper armCollections
Exhibitions