Dress

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This lady's silk and velvet dress dates from around 1896. It reflects the fashion of the time which included high necklines and 'gigot' or 'leg o' mutton' dress sleeves.

The black and orange silk is flecked with cream spots The brown velvet bodice is trimmed with white felt lattice decoration.

Skirts of the 1890s were cut in gores (tapering or triangular pieces of material) to achieve a smooth shape below a tight waist. Dresses also had full busts and, in the mid-decade, large puffed sleeves. These sleeves were a deliberate return to the 1830s, echoing the styles fashionable when Queen Victoria was growing up. This conscious return to an earlier fashion began nearly a century of nostalgia for bygone styles, interspersed with period of new, very creative ideas.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-180-000-143-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland Part 2
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  H.NAA 37
• Date: Around 1896
  
• Material: Silk / velvet
  
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• Subject: Costume, women's (NMAS Classification)
  
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• Description: Lady's dress of black and orange flecked silk and brown velvet, consisting of a bodice and a skirt
  
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