Woman's Day Dress

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Textiles

c. 1800

Made in France with cotton imported from India

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

Thomas Murray. “Kismet in Chicago.” Hali : The International Journal of Oriental Carpets and Textiles, no. 215 (Spring 2023): 128-133, no. 7 (ill).

Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, Fabricating Fashion, Aug. 20, 2022–Jan. 2, 2023, no. cat.

Chantal Dagommer, Paul Bert Serpette, Paris, by Oct. 2017 [personal correspondence from T. Halle, Apr. 2, 2019; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Cora Ginsburg, New York, Oct. 2017 [invoice no. 4266, inventory no. W4090a, Apr. 15, 2019; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.

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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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.

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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.

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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.