We’ve been making a major push to expand our collection of original dresses and gowns and after attending a recent auction, we’re are especially pleased to announce the acquisition of a circa 1880 day dress made from a combination of silk and piña cloth. What is especially exciting is that this particular dress used to be part of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has now been de-accessioned. Many of you will probably recognize this dress- it’s all over Pinterest and we even wrote a post about it back in early 2016.

We haven’t been able to conduct an exhaustive examination of the dress but here are a few observations:

First in terms of style, this is a princess line dress with a small train so it’s consistent with the circa 1880 attribution. The construction is quite complex and the upper part is boned and shaped so as to be worn over a corset. Finally, running down the front of the dress is wide panel of ruched turquoise silk satin.

Next, the fashion fabric appears to be a combination of white piña cloth with an ivory silk under layer, that is slightly rough to the touch. The piña cloth is very filmy yet firm- think a heavyweight silk organza. Running through the piña cloth are turquoise blue silk satin ribbon stripes; they appear to have been woven into the piña cloth itself. Finally, the dress interior is lined with a fine white cotton with a coarser cotton muslin running along the inside of the hem, acting as a guard.

Finally, here are some shots of the entire dress that were taken by the seller:

We are very pleased with this dress and we’re already making plans for a few designs inspired by it. Stay tuned for more!