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Day dress
unknown - Enlarge image
Day dress
- Place of origin:
France (possibly, made)
- Date:
1904-1908 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Cotton lawn, with handmade lace insertions and cotton crocheted flowers
- Credit Line:
Given by the Baron Charles de Menasce
- Museum number:
T.107-1939
- Gallery location:
Fashion, room 40, case CA6, shelf FIG12
This style of delicate pale dress was very popular for wear at summer garden parties and fêtes. The Lady's Realm (1907) remarked: 'July is the ideal month in England where dress is concerned, and our thoughts turn to transparent lawns, ethereal muslins and dainty laces which are all associated with summer confections of London and Paris'.
The skirt appears seamless but is made up of many almost invisible hand-stitched joins linking the bands of hand-made lace and lawn. The hand-crocheted flowers add depth and texture. This labour-intensive decoration within an all-white colour scheme satisfied the fashion for costly detail. Although this dress looks soft and pliable, the wearer would have worn rigid corseting underneath.
