Dress
A 19th-century woman's dress of black cotton embroidered in gold thread with vertical stripes and a chest panel, a sharp contrast of dark ground and gold. 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 129.5 cm.
In the pictureA long dress of black cotton is dressed on a mannequin. Several bands of gold-thread embroidery run vertically from the shoulders to the hem, a wide panel filled with gold thread covers the chest, and the sleeves are long and full. The gold lines on the black ground emphasize the vertical line of the body.
BackgroundBlack cotton dresses decorated with metallic-thread embroidery are a form seen in wedding and festival dress across many parts of the Middle East. Vertical bands of embroidery make the wearer look taller when standing, and the chest panel fills the spot where the eye goes first. The garment is cut simply, by joining rectangles of cloth, so all of its splendor comes from the embroidery.
Puzzle tipThere are many black pieces, but the gold stripes run vertically, so the position of the stripes on a piece tells you left from right. Assemble the gold chest panel pieces, the mannequin's neck, and the curved hem pieces first; the sleeve pieces stand out because their stripes run in a different direction from the body. 100 pieces is a good fit.
- Classification
- Main dress-Womenswear
- Medium
- Cotton, metal wrapped thread; embroidered
- Dimensions
- 129.5 cm
- Credit line
- Purchase, Irene Lewisohn Bequest, 1951
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
- Six 19th-Century Women's Dresses from the Islamic World: Same Cut, Different Embroidery
The same cut of joined rectangular cloth, with only the embroidery differing from dress to dress. Women's clothing of the 19th-century Islamic world seen through four black dresses, an ensemble and a vest.
