Dress Panel thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Dress Panel

ca. 1749-1752 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Fashionable men and women displayed their taste in the fine fabrics they chose for their clothes. Until the later 17th century most silks were imported. But a silk-weaving industry developed in England, centred around Spitalfields in London, which grew increasingly successful between 1700 and 1760. Huguenot refugee families, contributing technical and business skills, played an integral part in its development.

Spitalfields weavers produced plain and patterned fabrics. Designs changed season by season, influenced by French fashions but developing a distinctive English style.

This fabric, woven in Spitalfields, is a brocaded silk, and its shape shows that it was once part of a gown. The technique of brocading allowed different colours to be introduced into the pattern of a fabric in specific, sometimes very small areas. It was a more laborious process for the weaver than using patterning wefts running from selvedge to selvedge, but the resulting effect could be much more varied and lively. This example also has a self-coloured pattern in the ground, known as a flush pattern, and its use of silver thread indicates that it would have been relatively expensive.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Brocaded silk brocaded in coloured silks and silver threads
Brief description
Dress panel of silk brocaded in coloured silks and silver threads, Spitalfields, London, ca. 1749-1752
Physical description
Dress panel of yellow figured silk brocaded in coloured silks and silver threads with a flush pattern in the ground. Floral design.
Dimensions
  • Length: 128.3cm (maximum)
  • Width: 52.1cm
  • Pattern repeat length: 60.3cm
  • Width: 20.625in
  • Length: 50.5in (maximum)
Credit line
Given by Miss D. M. Gower
Subject depicted
Summary
Fashionable men and women displayed their taste in the fine fabrics they chose for their clothes. Until the later 17th century most silks were imported. But a silk-weaving industry developed in England, centred around Spitalfields in London, which grew increasingly successful between 1700 and 1760. Huguenot refugee families, contributing technical and business skills, played an integral part in its development.

Spitalfields weavers produced plain and patterned fabrics. Designs changed season by season, influenced by French fashions but developing a distinctive English style.

This fabric, woven in Spitalfields, is a brocaded silk, and its shape shows that it was once part of a gown. The technique of brocading allowed different colours to be introduced into the pattern of a fabric in specific, sometimes very small areas. It was a more laborious process for the weaver than using patterning wefts running from selvedge to selvedge, but the resulting effect could be much more varied and lively. This example also has a self-coloured pattern in the ground, known as a flush pattern, and its use of silver thread indicates that it would have been relatively expensive.
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.243-1959

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Record createdDecember 15, 1999
Record URL
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