Afternoon dress

ca. 1866
Not on view
A trompe l'oeil bolero jacket cropped and defined the bust, while the waist rose into the ribcage, genuinely above the zone of the waist. The devices of bolero and apron differentiated sectors within the dress and emphasized the high placement of the waist, while the crinoline hoop shifted to the back to make the great shape of the skirt mountainously prominent. Such monumental dress captured what French poet Charles Baudelaire called the "pomp and circumstance" of modern urban life.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Afternoon dress
  • Date: ca. 1866
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: silk
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mary Chippendale, 1948
  • Object Number: C.I.48.62a, b
  • Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

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