Intern Report Part Two: The Dress Detective

We are so excited to share Part Two of intern Kasia Stempniak's blog series; in this post, she shares her findings after completing The Dress Detective method on a 19th century Parisian couture gown. Make sure you read Part One about Kasia's summer internship at the FIDM Museum!

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I always saw, I always said
If I were grown and free,
I’d have a gown of reddest red
As fine as you could see,

Dorothy Parker’s poem of sartorial bliss in a red dress might have resonated with the owner of the vibrant velvet gown below.[1]

Velvet Evening Gown, P. Barroin
Paris, France, c. 1897
Gift of Jane Riggs
2013.1098.1 

This gown is one of four pieces in the FIDM Museum’s permanent collection attributed to the Parisian dressmaker P. Barroin. In my last post I discussed learning about object handling and research during my internship at FIDM. In this post, I apply what I learned to this exquisite French gown using the three steps set out by the book The Dress Detective.

*This post will be an abridged version of the method.