Description:
Gown with a robe and matching petticoat made of green and white silk droguet decorated with trees and monuments, and striped silk tabs and green wool braid. From about 1710-1790, decorative petticoats were fashionable for wearing under an "open robe," a style of dress that is open across the center front of the skirt. The petticoat could be made to match the dress fabric, embroidered, or made of a contrasting solid color. Patterned silks were one of the most expensive textiles available during the 17th and 18th centuries. The time and effort to draft the design and weave the pattern added significantly to their cost. In this example, two sets of warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) threads create a repeating design known as a “bizarre” pattern. Popular in the first decade of the 18th century, bizarre silks (the term itself comes from scholarship done in the 1950s and 1960s) are characterized by their fanciful design elements, playful use of scale, and a western interpretation of eastern motifs. This silk was probably woven in Lyon, France’s center of silk weaving during the 17th and 18th centuries. The weave of the gown's fabric resembles a tissue or lampas. Known variously as a "robe battante" or "robe volante" (meaning meaning floating or flying dress), this important survival illustrates the more casual French influence in women’s dress after the death of Louis XIV. The garment appears to float freely off of the shoulders. Fabric is fitted only at the shoulders, released in back with an arrangement of double box pleats. Despite its casual outward appearance, however, the dress would have been anchored to a firm pair of stays underneath. At some point after the gown’s initial creation, sleeve flounces and robings, gathered material edging the gown’s opening, were added in different, although matching, silk. This gown may be an example of either a robe volante or a robe de chambre. Also known as a wrapping gown. Acquired from Fulgence, Paris.
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Linen; Silk; Wool Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.507 |
