Dress
A 19th-century woman's dress of black silk with gold-thread embroidery concentrated at the neck and shoulders: a simple silhouette set against lavish embroidery. Full commentary ↓
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Dress is a textile by an unknown maker (19th century) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 154.9 cm.
In the pictureA long sleeveless dress of black silk is dressed on a mannequin. Broad leaf patterns are embroidered in gold thread along the neckline, shoulders and side seams, and the rest is plain glossy black fabric. It widens toward the bottom and reaches the floor. It is 155 cm long.
BackgroundEmbroidery in metal-wrapped thread marked wedding and festive dress in women's clothing of the Middle East and North Africa. Placing embroidery only at the neck and shoulders on a black ground, as on this dress, is a practical choice that saves material while making the area around the face splendid. The garment itself is a simple rectangular cut, shaped to cover the body loosely rather than to fit it.
Puzzle tipBlack areas make up most of it, so the first step is picking out the embroidered pieces. Set up the top frame with the gold pieces from the neckline and side seams, then fit the mannequin's white neck and the curved pieces of the hem. For the black pieces, use the bright streaks created by the sheen of the fabric as clues.
- Classification
- Main dress-Womenswear
- Medium
- Silk, cotton, metal wrapped thread; embroidered
- Dimensions
- 154.9 cm
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Raphael Stora, 1947
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
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Regularly repeating embroidery patterns make a puzzle much harder, even at the same piece count. How to find the differences hidden in the repetition.
