Today’s dress is a circa 1898 day dress from the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs:
Day Dress, c. 1898; Musée des Arts Décoratifs (32188.AB)
Constructed by Coguenhem et cie (one of many smaller Parisian fashion houses of the time that we no almost nothing about today), this dress is a one-piece construction and had the hour-glass shape characteristic of Mid to Late 1890s day dresses. The dress itself has smooth lines and a minimum of trim although the style effect of the double is striking, consisting of a scalloped outer hem combined with a contrasting hem of light celadon silk satin. The dress’ fashion fabric is a mint green-colored wool chenille with lighter celedon-colored velvet appliques; also, the dress is decorated with what appears to be same celedon-colored silk satin cording utilizing a floral design motif. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to determine what some of the trim details are because of the lack of close-up photos.
The above picture shows off the trim details to their best advantage and the corded floral design really makes the dress stand out. Hopefully at some point we’ll be able to find out more about this amazing dress.