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Woman's Day Dress

A work made of cotton, hand-spun, hand-woven plain weave called mulmul or muslin.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of cotton, hand-spun, hand-woven plain weave called mulmul or muslin.

Date:

c. 1800

Artist:

Made in France with cotton imported from India

About this artwork

Indian cotton weavers have been creating delicate, sheer textiles for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Elite men and women on the Indian subcontinent valued such fine, cotton muslin—a specialty of Bengal that was made entirely by hand—for fashionable clothing.

White cotton dresses first appeared in French fashion in the 1780s; the simplicity of the delicate column-like silhouette was seen as an ideal expression of Neoclassical femininity, a look inspired by Classical Greek and Roman statuary. The quality of this cotton was nearly impossible to replicate using European industrial methods, adding to its cachet.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Textiles

Title

Woman's Day Dress

Place

India (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1796–1804

Medium

Cotton, hand-spun, hand-woven plain weave called mulmul or muslin

Dimensions

Approximately: H.: 152.4 cm (60 in.)

Credit Line

Belle M. Borland Endowment Fund

Reference Number

2019.787.1

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/250437/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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