Object: Ensemble
Date: c.1819
Medium: White cotton
Country: England
Credit Line: Museum Purchase
Object number: P88.28.2
DescriptionSpencer jacket, matching skirt in white cotton; short jacket with round yoke and collar, long puffed sleeves, trimmed with double row of puffs, appliquéd points with woven ball buttons; matching long skirt with back gathers, mock open front has same trim on overskirt edge, hems
Label Text:Simple, lightweight cotton dresses were adopted in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, after the French Revolution had dispatched the vogue for ostentatious sartorial displays of wealth by way of the guillotine. The Spencer jacket and skirt, though retaining the typical high waist and general columnar silhouette of the first two decades, begins to show the increasing decoration characteristic of the 1820s. The shawl worn over the dress served a dual function: it provided warmth to the thin base garment and demonstrated the fashion-consciousness of the wearer, as the cloths were extremely popular through the mid-nineteenth century. Kashmiri shawls were popularized by Napoleon's wife, the Empress Josephine, owner of an extensive collection. Imported shawls were prohibitively expensive for many, and European cities, like Paisley in Scotland, the likely source for this example, began to produce less costly shawls in imitative motifs.
Exhibitions:
- Luxury
- Eco-Fashion: Going Green