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Tea gown
House of Rouff - Enlarge image
Tea gown
- Place of origin:
[Paris?], France (made)
India (panel, probably, embroidered)
Limerick, Ireland (lace, made) - Date:
ca. 1900 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
House of Rouff (designer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Woven silk damask embroidered with glass, metal thread and beads, and embroidered net and lace
- Museum number:
T.87-1991
- Gallery location:
In Storage
Tea gowns were originally designed in the 1870s as easy, comfortable garments appropriate for a woman to wear for tea with family and friends in the home, but they became increasingly elaborate and fitted. By the 1890s they combined exotic fabrics and historical references, and were worn for public appearances, such as dinner parties.
This example is very much a hybrid of influences and materials. The richly embroidered front panel of this gown was probably made in India but was designed to appeal to European taste, and it is complimented by the generous falls of Limerick lace. From the back, a long pleat of lace drops from the neck to the hem, a style known at the time as the Watteau pleat, after the dresses seen in paintings by the eighteenth-century painter.
