This is a superb example of mid-1770s women’s fashion in design produced by late-eighteenth century Britain’s copperplate printing industry. Printed cotton and linen garments imitating the bright colours and bold designs of the widely admired Indian chintzes became popular in Europe during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In Britain, all painted or printed cottons were banned between 1721 and 1774, so to circumvent this, British textile printers used fustian (linen warp and cotton weft) or pure linen fabrics. At the beginning of the eighteenth-century, the printed technique used was block-printing with carved wooden blocks. Shortly after 1750, the copperplate printing method used on paper was adapted for textiles. When the ban on painted/printed cottons was lifted in 1774, British textile printers began using pure cotton fabrics, such as this example. British printed fabrics were popular outside Britain and exported to Europe and Britain’s colonies abroad.

These brightly patterned fabrics were worn at all levels of society. A gown like this one could be Sunday best for a working woman, formal daywear for a gentry woman or informal morning dress for an artistocratic woman. Beyond their attractive designs, these printed fustians, linens and cottons also had a very practical appeal at all social levels – they could be washed, unlike the silks and wools used for dress.

The style of this garment was called a ‘gown’ in the eighteenth century. Worn throughout Europe, it was considered typically British and known as the ‘robe à l’anglaise’ in France. The construction of this gown is slightly different from British gowns in the V&A’s collections, which corresponds with its Dutch provenance.