Object: Gown
Date: c. 1890
Medium: Silk velvet
Country: USA
Credit Line: Gift of Mary Elizabeth Fogarty
Object number: 67.127.2
DescriptionReception gown in the Renaissance style purple velvet; bodice with attached back train; high neck edged with rouched velvet; leg o' mutton sleeves ending in shirred cuff; back cut in princess style; pleated train held by three hooks; bodice lined in silk; hooked front; matching underskirt
Label Text:During the rapidly industrializing late 19th century, velvet was extremely popular for women’s fashion and interiors. Design scholar Freyja Hartzell theorizes that velvet’s seductively soft, “domesticated fur” texture served as a second skin for bourgeois consumers, providing comfort, protection, and “tactile pleasure in a culture whose taboos against touching are legendary.”
Exhibitions:
- Fabric In Fashion