Dress
A 19th-century dress of sheer cotton embroidered with gold-thread diamond patterns, its red-embroidered front panel anchoring the image. 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.
In the pictureA long dress made of thin, sheer black cotton is shown on a mannequin. The front panel, open deep from the neck to the chest, is embroidered with diamonds and stripes in red and gold thread, and fine gold motifs are scattered at regular intervals over the whole body as well. The sleeves are long and narrow.
BackgroundSheer fabric like this was not worn as an outer garment but as one of several layers. The red and gold embroidery on the chest panel is a combination often seen in wedding clothes, and diamond patterns were also used in this region's embroidery to ward off misfortune. Seen alongside the other black cotton dress in the same collection, it lets you compare how the density and placement of the embroidery differ from garment to garment.
Puzzle tipThe red embroidery pieces on the front panel are the clearest clues, so fit them first. The pieces with fine gold motifs on the body are hard to place because the motifs are evenly spaced, so build the border with the mannequin's white neck and the outer outline of the dress, then fill the inside. 48 pieces is recommended.
- Classification
- Main dress-Womenswear
- Medium
- Cotton, metal wrapped thread; embroidered
- Dimensions
- Dress:
- Credit line
- Gift of Alan L. Wolfe, 1956
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.
