Evening dress
Oscar Wilde wrote an article entitled "Woman's Dress" for the Pall Mall Gazette on October 14, 1884, to rebut some of the letters written to the Gazette about his recent lectures on dress reform. Wilde explained his principles of dress: "I am not proposing any antiquarian revival of ancient costume, but tying merely to point out the right laws of dress, laws which are dictated by art and not by archaeology, by science and not by fashion; and just as the best work of art in our days is that which combines classic grace with absolute reality, from continuation of the Greek principles of beauty with the German principles of health will come, I feel certain, the costumes of the future."
Artwork Details
- Title: Evening dress
- Design House: Attributed to Liberty & Co. (British, founded London, 1875)
- Date: 1880s
- Culture: British
- Medium: silk
- Credit Line: Purchase, Gifts from Various Donors, 1985
- Object Number: 1985.155
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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