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Dress fabric
Unknown - Enlarge image
Dress fabric
- Place of origin:
Hyderabad, India (made)
- Date:
ca. 1855 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Cotton net with embroidery, gold-wrapped thread or gold wire, with applied strips of metal and pieces of beetle-wing
- Museum number:
4411(IS)
- Gallery location:
In Storage
Dress fabrics embroidered with pieces of beetles' wing-cases, often cut into leaf shapes, were popular with Western women (those based in India and in Europe) from the mid-19th to early 20th century. The iridescent pieces of beetle-wing gave a lustre and sparkle to evening dresses that emulated applied gemstones. The pieces of beetle-wing were attached by piercing them with a needle and sewing them directly onto the ground fabric, in this case black net, but often fine cotton muslin. Because of their extreme fragility, they were usually used only around the edges of garments (hems, necks and sleeves) to minimise crushing.
