FIDM Museum Blog

Liberty & Co. evening gown, c. 1910

 

Evening gown
Liberty & Co.
c. 1910
Silk satin, silk gauze & pearl beads
Museum Purchase
2006.5.7

Liberty & Co. opened in London's West End during 1875. Founder Arthur Lasenby Liberty stocked his small shop with goods imported from the Middle East and Japan, including curios, porcelain, fans and lengths of fabric. Liberty's shop had a bazaar-like atmosphere and attracted a clientele sympathetic to the ideals of the Aesthetic Movement. From the beginning, textiles were an important part of Lasenby's retail plan. In addition to stocking imported textiles, Liberty & Co. soon began commissioning furnishing and dress textiles from known and emerging artisans. These textiles were all marketed under the name "Liberty Art Fabrics." The most distinct of these textiles were densely patterned and often borrowed imagery from the natural world. One pattern frequently associated with Liberty & Co. features overlapping sprays of peacock feathers. This pattern was designed in the late 1880s, and is still used by Liberty & Co. today. Other textiles were soft, solid color silks in a variety of weights. Whether patterned or plain, Liberty textiles were prized for their softness and graceful drape.

Lounge jacket, 1880s

 

Lounge or at-home jacket
Silk with cotton embroidery
1880s
Museum Purchase
2008.5.34

We are excited to announce that our 1880s embroidered silk lounge jacket will be featured in The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900. Opening April 2 at the V&A Museum in London, this exhibition explores the arts of the Aesthetic Movement, including painting, sculpture, design, furniture, architecture, fashion and literature. We are thrilled to contribute to this exhibition!

Chatelaine purse

Combining utility and beauty, chatelaines were a form of functional jewelry worn hanging at the waist. Comprising a hook and multiple dangling chains attached to small, useful objects (scissors, writing utensils, keys, purse, watch, perfume vial, etc.) chatelaines were hooked to a sash, belt or waistband. Visible storage worked in intricate designs of silver, enamel or gold, chatelaines were also an expression of authority. Chatelaines usually adorned the “keeper of the keys” for a large household and signified a position of familial and social authority. This was a clear visual expression of the literal meaning of chatelaine, a mistress of the chateau. Though their origins are a bit obscure, the chatelaine probably developed sometime in the Middle Ages, enjoying periodic revivals through the late nineteenth century. An early nineteenth century cut steel chatelaine can be seen here and an 1887 octopus shaped chatelaine can be seen here.

In the nineteenth century, chatelaines were usually worn by women. As the century progressed, variations on the chatelaine emerged, including the chatelaine pocket or chatelaine bag. Unlike a chatelaine which featured multiple items dangling from an elaborate hook, a chatelaine pocket or chatelaine purse showcased one item, a small pouch or purse. Purse and pocket chatelaines were particularly popular from the mid-1870s until the early 1880s. During these years, the fashionable silhouette clung tightly to the hips and upper legs and would have been disrupted by a pocket, especially if it was actually in use.

Chatelaine purse
1860s silver frame
1880s velvet
Gift of Pat Schmidt
90.636.1

Hand painted silk ensemble, c. 1925

Child's "Dainty Blossom" Ensemble
Daisy Stanford
Hand-painted silk
c. 1925
Museum Purchase
2003.5.24A-C

Hand-painted novelties, including dresses, scarves and ribbons, enjoyed a burst of popularity in the teens and twenties. A Paris fashion report from 1913 stated that "hand-painted dresses...are said to be the coming craze at fashionable Summer resorts."¹ This was despite their high price, "which is said to be 40 per cent in excess of the ordinary figure."² In 1924, "painted things," including gowns, gloves, stockings and scarves, were declared "in perfect harmony with the mode of the day and very smart."³

Morning gown, c. 1895

For the Victorian woman, correct dress was an essential component of social acceptance. Women of the aristocratic classes and the nouveaux riche changed outfits multiple times each day, always with the knowledge that dress played a crucial role in determining social standing. Understanding the correspondence between the details (trim, fabric, neckline, etc.) of a particular gown and a specific social occasion was valued knowledge, "from which one could not depart without appearing lacking in education."¹ Fortunately for the "uneducated," magazines like Harper's Bazaar and Godey's Magazine contained articles on dress and etiquette for all occasions. The gown pictured below is of a type called a morning gown, intended for breakfast at home with the family and possibly some light housework or correspondence.

Morning gown
1893-1897
Gift of Marilyn Habicht
S2002.41.1

Masculine dress?

In the early 20th century, women who chose to wear bifurcated garments (i.e. trousers) outside of the gymnasium or off the playing field risked public censure. Though women had been wearing full, almost skirt-like trousers for sporting activities since the late 19th century, these bifurcated garments escaped condemnation only because they were functional, not fashionable. Full trousers of this type were often called "bloomers," after Amelia Bloomer, leader of a controversial attempt to popularize bifurcated garments as everyday dress for women during the early 1850s. Worn for activities such as bicycling, cricket, light calisthenics and swimming, bloomers allowed for freedom of movement, while obscuring the contours of the leg and lower body.

Bloomers
c. 1920
Gift of the Manlove Family
2006.870.76

Wheat motif

Widespread cultural preoccupations or anxieties are often expressed through dress. This can be extremely overt, as in the case of a T-shirt slogan, or much more discreet, as in a frequently recurring decorative motif. In the 19th century, anxiety relating to the Industrial Revolution and the move from an agrarian to urban/industrial society resulted in the frequent appearance of ripe wheat stalks on dress and accessories.

Shawl
1875-1885
Gift of E. Heise
97.347.1

Smocked frock

Between the 1750s and the late 19th century, rural Englishmen wore voluminous smocks when working outdoors. Usually made of rough homespun, most smocks had long, full sleeves and ended at mid-calf. Though entirely functional, smocks often featured decorative embroidery around the cuffs, bodice or neckline. Called smocking, it was more than mere decorative embellishment. Because smocking consisted of stitches passed over areas of gathered fabric, it created stretch in an otherwise non-stretch garment, allowing for more freedom of movement. This was important for those living in rural areas, as manual labor was an undeniable fact of life.

In what could be considered an early example of work-wear influencing fashion, both smocks and smocking became an important part of fashionable dress beginning in the 1870s. Smocks were adopted by those artists and bohemians interested in alternative styles of dress. Decorative smocking appeared on garments worn by women and children, such as the young girl's day dress of pink silk seen below. Here, smocking stitches create the bodice, peaked waistline and fitted cuffs.

Day dress
Attributed to Liberty & Company, London
c.1893-97
Museum Purchase
2008.25.3

Kimono dressing gown

Japanese styles are always attractive in negligees.-The Delineator, April 1903

Kimono dressing gown
c. 1885
Gift of Anonymous Donor
80.40.1

Bohemian dress for children

Bohemians were figures of both fascination and fun in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A typical Bohemian was often artistically or politically inclined and was willing to step outside the bounds of conventional society. The highest Bohemian ideal was to be true to one's own inner passions, regardless of societal or economic pressures. This interest in nonconformity led Bohemian dressers to a variety of innovative dress styles: non-Western garments, comfortable work or sport clothes, and costumes born of their own imaginations.

Long associated with working artists, the "art smock" attained special prominence in notoriously Bohemian Greenwich Village during the late teens. The loose, unstructured fit marked its wearer as a woman willing to reject the boundaries of fashion and propriety in the pursuit of an "artistic" life. A woman who was willing to wear such a free and easy garment was assumed to adhere to ideals of personal, social and sexual liberation. Smocks could be purchased in several Greenwich Village boutiques, including the Village Store and from the studio of batik artist Alice Muth. The 1922 Greenwich Village guidebook by Anna Alice Chapin noted that it was common to see "girls in smocks of 'artistic' shades-bilious yellow-green, or magenta-tending violet" when visiting the area.