P
ingat is not a name people today associate with dress styles. Sure his atelier made them but in today’s fashion literature, he’s more associated with outerwear than anything else. Recently, we came across some interesting pictures of a circa 1880s Pingat day dress that was sold on an auction site:
We were unable to obtain more high-resolution pictures but they’re still detailed enough to get a good idea of the style. First though, we wanted to try and date this a bit more specifically than simply being “1880s”- auction websites are notorious for poor dating. Based on the dress silhouette, our best estimate would be the 1881-1884 time frame. The rear skirt has some fullness in the back and the bodice back is also shaped to further accentuate the skirt’s fullness. However, at the same time, the skirt’s fullness doesn’t read “large” like what one sees with late 1880s skirts; of course, a lot of this comes down to staging and it would be interesting to have seen what sort of bustle the skirt could accommodate. At the same time, the skirt just doesn’t read the natural form/mid-bustle era style characteristic of the 1877-1881 time frame. Also, it must be noted that the bodice doesn’t completely cover the hips, which also tends to support the mid-1880s time frame. In the end, we’re going to qualify this all with the usual “our best guess” disclaimer. 🙂
As for the dress itself, it appears to have been constructed from a blue-striped white/ivory silk satin with no extra trim- it could have had some lace but if so, it’s long gone. The above picture of the label gives a nice close-up view of the fashion fabric. Below are close-up pictures of the bodice front and back:
The collar just seems to naked without some lace… 🙂
This dress is hemmed with two rows of knife pleating of fabric that’s similar to the fashion fabric only that the stripes appear to be more closely spaced together. It’s also an interesting effect having the knife pleating stripes running perpendicular to the fashion fabric stripes. Finally, separating the two rows of knife pleating is ruching. Viewing the dress at a distance, one cannot help but a bit disoriented by all the striping running in different directions. 🙂
This is a very nicely designed day dress and it could have even worked for a reception dress. However, the most interesting part about this dress is that it was actually a combination day/evening dress as can be seen from this evening bodice:
Unfortunately, there are no other views of the night bodice so we don’t know much but judging from the voluminous lace running down the back, it’s clear that the night bodice was intended to provide a contrast to the more tidy day bodice. Maybe one day some more pictures of the night bodice will surface. Overall, this is an interesting dress and it uses stripes to maximize its impact while at the same time, the optical effect of the stripes is a bit jarring. We hope you’ve enjoyed a view of this very unique dress.