Object: Set
Date: c. 1930
Medium: Silk crepe
Country: USA
Credit Line: Gift of L. Graham Patmore
Object number: 74.93.8
DescriptionMatching dress and jacket in black silk crepe with contrasting off white crepe bodice
Label Text:Cocktail dresses are semi-formal garments designed in endless variations today, but they emerged during the 1920s as flexible ensembles – sleeveless dresses with matching jackets – to help modern women adapt to changing social norms. Fashion historian Elyssa Schram Da Cruz writes that concepts of individuality and rejections of Edwardian respectability birthed the “phenomenon of the ‘Drinking Woman,’ who dared to enjoy cocktails in mixed company.” She needed a long-sleeved daytime ensemble for cocktail hour, but also more formal dress to move straight onto dinner.
In Collection(s)
Exhibitions:
- Food and Fashion