Description:
Woman's gown made up of a robe with closed bodice and open skirt. The garment is made from a plain weave plaid silk in yellow, green and pink, with simple, warp-faced brocaded stripes in a geomtric pattern colored in green, rust, and white, respectively. An additional, warp-woven stripe of abstracted meandering floral design in maroon appears. The fabric width is fairly wide, at 29 1/4" selvage width. This gown illustrates the decreasing importance of silk design in fashionable women's dress as lighter, pastel colors and smaller, simpler motifs influenced by embroidered cottons took over. The back of the robe is constructed as a robe a l'anglaise or en fourreau' that is, with center back fabric continuous from neck to hem (not bisected by a waist seam), pleated and stitched into place down the center bodice back in two box pleats, At the small of the back, the pleats are released for added skirt fullness. The sleeves are fairly long, extending about midway down the forearm of the wearer, shaped over the wearer's elbows using a dart. Each sleeve ends in a doubel row of self fabric robings suggesting a wide cuff. Matching pinked robings edge the wide, low neckling. Garment is pieced, especially at the center front of the bodice, suggesting it was altered from its original make up, perhaps in the early 1770s. The bodice is lined in a white plain weave linen lining. A newer cream wool facing has been added to the skirt hem at some point after the fashionable life of the garment. There have also been bright green thread eyes added inside the center front bodice opening on either side. Cleaning and repair commissioned by museum founders in 1957 by Ernest LoNano may have been responsible for these alterations. A brocaded silk gown in the collection of the Newport Historical Society, acc. #D.17, dating to about 1770 has a somewhat similar geometric design to this garment's fashion fabric.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.252 |
