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American

Reception Dress, 1884

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

American

Title

Reception Dress

Year

1884

Medium

Silk brocade and satin weave, trimmed with chenille fringe

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • silk

Techniques

  • brocade,
  • satin weave,
  • chenille

Dimensions

Center back length: 61 cm (24 inches) (bodice)

Type

  • Fashion,
  • Costume

Credit

Gift of Miss Beatrice McCloy

Object Number

60.068.2

Projects & Publications

Publications

Selected Works

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Swagged and Poufed

January 22 - July 3, 2016

In addition to the enveloping application of pleats, gathers, and caterpillar fringe, this 1884 dress is defined by its “centaur” silhouette, created by the juxtaposition of tightly fitted bodice and shelf-like bustle. As Marcel Proust wrote in In Search of Lost Time, women were “either straightlaced to suffocation or else completely buried” in “the architecture of these fripperies.”

An 1882 article in The Decorator and Furnisher describes similar styles in home decor: “The Parisian tapissier [upholsterer] gathers up, crumples, and rumples plush, broche (brocaded) silks, lampas, satins, and scores of rich tissues that Lyon is continually turning out, with an art, a grace, an indescribable chic of the Parisian modistes and dressmakers.”

Raid the Icebox 1 with Andy Warhol

April 23 - June 30, 1970

Raid the Icebox 1 with Andy Warhol

Related

American

skirt, 1884

American

bodice, 1884
No Image Available

American

slipper, 1884

American

slipper, 1884

More objects +

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Reception Dress with the accession number of 60.068.2. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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