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Dress
Liberty - Enlarge image
Dress
- Place of origin:
London, England (made)
- Date:
ca. 1894 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Liberty (designer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Silk velvet, trimmed with bands of satin-stitch embroidery in silk, embroidered with beads, neckline inserted with Liberty 'Hop and Ribbon' damask, lined with silk, and fastened in front with hooks and eyes
- Museum number:
T.56-1976
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This gown would have been worn as a 'tea gown', as an informal 'at home' dress for the late afternoon, or even as a simple dinner dress.
It was made for a member of the Liberty family, who owned a store in Regent Street, London. The green and yellow damask was registered as 'Hop and Ribbon' by Liberty's in 1892-1893.
In 1884 Liberty's had opened a dress department under the guidance of the designer E. W. Godwin. He was a member of the Aesthetic Movement, which favoured 'artistic' dress for women based on classical, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite and Renaissance clothing. The gown is close to Walter Crane's designs for Aesthetic dress in Aglaeia, the journal of the Healthy and Artistic Dress Union. The 'greenery-yallery' colours are a feature of Aesthetic taste, while the epaulettes and high-waisted, dark green velvet overdress are historical references.
