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Unknown Maker, American

Reception Dress

Maker

Unknown Maker, American

Culture

American

Title

Reception Dress

Year

1884

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

silk

Dimensions

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

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Miss Beatrice McCloy

Object Number

60.068.2

Type

Publications

Exhibition History

Swagged and Poufed
The Upholstered Body in the Late 19th-Century and Today
Jan 22, 2016 – Jul 03, 2016

Label copy

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
Apr 23, 1970 – Jun 30, 1970

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, American
Reception Dress, 1884
Silk brocade and satin weave, trimmed with chenille fringe
Center back length: 61 cm (24 inches) (bodice)
Gift of Miss Beatrice McCloy 60.068.2

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