I first came across this magnificent dress a couple of years
ago, while I was researching a gown I wanted to make. It struck me immediately
because, well, just look at it.
Then, I was lucky enough to find an online
catalog from a fashion exhibit at the Kunstgewerbemuseum, where this gown
is housed. This wonderful interactive booklet had dozens of extremely high-resolution
images of their collection, and I finally got a better look at the details of
this stunning dress.
The gown fabric is a lampas silk with a subtle woven floral
design. There are stripes of silver metal thread woven horizontally, as well as
woven silver leaves and flowers. The furbelows are all trimmed with metallic
silver lace, as are the front edges of the skirt, and the hem of the petticoat.
The bells that I initially saw on the low-res photo turned out to be pompoms of
silver lace.
The pattern of the fabric has been carefully cut so the
subtle woven pattern runs vertically on the outside of the sleeve. (I love the
way the fabric looks like birch bark in this photo.)
In the back, the dress has a modest train, and those
fabulous Watteau pleats.
Tragically, the dress is behind a pillar in the online
gallery, so we don’t get a great look at it. We do a tantalizing look at a pair
of matching shoes, which unfortunately are not on the museum's website, and I haven't been able to find any better images of them anywhere online, though I swear I have seen them before. (If anyone has better images of the shoes, please let me know!)
If you want to get a closer look at the dress online, the museum page has a good description of the dress, and the online catalog has some wonderful closeup images where you get to see a lot of detail.
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