Dress
Sarafan
1850-1899 (made)
1850-1899 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Accurately aligning buttons with the loops into which they fasten is tricky, but when 28 buttons had to be attached along the 112 cm (44 in) front opening of this dress, a relatively quick and simple technique was used. Instead of sewing each button and its corresponding loop in place, a length of orange silk cord was threaded through the metal loop at the base of shiny hollow brass or solid lead button (both types are used on this dress). Once the buttons had been strung onto the cord, it would have been easy to stitch the cord along one edge of the front opening, spacing the buttons at regular intervals. A corresponding cord was stitched to the other edge, forming a loop opposite each button.
The colour of these cords has faded but was originally bright orange and because the silk is floss (untwisted) silk, it was originally glossy and added to the shine and glitter of this dress.
The colour of these cords has faded but was originally bright orange and because the silk is floss (untwisted) silk, it was originally glossy and added to the shine and glitter of this dress.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Dress |
| Materials and techniques | Silk, brocaded with metal thread and cotton |
| Brief description | Dress, silk, cotton, metal thread, Russia, 1850-1899 |
| Physical description | Woman's dress, or sarafan, silk brocaded with metal thread and cotton, Russian. Gold flowers on purple satin ground. |
| Summary | Accurately aligning buttons with the loops into which they fasten is tricky, but when 28 buttons had to be attached along the 112 cm (44 in) front opening of this dress, a relatively quick and simple technique was used. Instead of sewing each button and its corresponding loop in place, a length of orange silk cord was threaded through the metal loop at the base of shiny hollow brass or solid lead button (both types are used on this dress). Once the buttons had been strung onto the cord, it would have been easy to stitch the cord along one edge of the front opening, spacing the buttons at regular intervals. A corresponding cord was stitched to the other edge, forming a loop opposite each button. The colour of these cords has faded but was originally bright orange and because the silk is floss (untwisted) silk, it was originally glossy and added to the shine and glitter of this dress. |
| Bibliographic reference | Crill, Rosemary, Jennifer Wearden and Verity Wilson. Dress in Detail from Around the World. London: V&A Publications, 2002. 224 p., ill. ISBN 09781851773787. p. 44 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 549-1907 |
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| Record created | January 9, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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