Medium: Green/brown changéant silk velvet, lace, beads, rhinestones, and gold metallic cord

Date: 1889-1890

Country: France

Credit: Museum purchase

Fashions of the fin de siècle used shimmering and elaborate surface decoration to create the image of Woman as an expensive, desirable object. Women in highly ornamented outfits literally embodied their husbands’ wealth, becoming paragons of seductive artifice. Jean Baudrillard called this “a production of value through exteriority.”

Object Number: P91.55.6