Dress
c. 1844
Silk taffeta
Museum purchase
Object number95.97.1
This conservative, very modest dress would have befitted Charlotte Bronte's fictional heroine, Jane Eyre. "[I] put on my black frock - which, Quakerlike as it was, at least had the merit of fitting to a nicety - and adjusted my clean white tucker, I thought I should do respectably enough," said Eyre. But Bronte described Eyre as being plain, and this dress is not exactly that. The dark brown silk taffeta holds subtle touches of luxury - a jacquard floral pattern, piped seams, and ruched ribbon edging - that enhance the quiet beauty of the dress.
DescriptionDay dress in brown silk satin (cotton backed) with jacquard floral pattern; round neck, fitted bodice, piped seams; 3/4 length bell undersleeve with cap sleeve epaulette, with ruched ribbon edging; full skirt with cartridge pleatsExhibitions