Reform dress

Silk dress and set of nine fragments of the material, England, ca. 1885.

Rich women wore so many dresses in this era.

Purple for loyalty, white for purity and green for hope: this was style as propaganda.

Kopie Reformkleid nach Kolo Moser – Wien Museum Online Sammlung

Kolo Moser, Reformkleid, um 1900

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Norsk Folkemuseum

This gown would have been worn as a 'tea gown', as an informal 'at home' dress for the late afternoon, or even as a simple dinner dress. In 1884 Liberty's had opened a dress department under the guidance of the designer E. W. Godwin. He was a member of the Aesthetic Movement, which favoured 'artistic' dress for women based on classical, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite and Renaissance clothing. The gown is close to Walter Crane's designs for Aesthetic dress in Aglaeia, the journal of the Healthy and…

Walking suit (reform dress?), Liberty, London, 1906-07. Purple cloth and printed (silk?) with smocking & embroidery. Skirt, blouse, jacket and loose sleeves. Gemeente Museum, the Hague

Well, I appear to be on a theme roll, because once again I’ve picked a dress with front view vs back view. This one is quite intentional though: it’s a tea gown with a specific over-robe effect. Last Week: an early 1860s dress in blue floral silk Last week’s dress was the opposite of the week before’s. A fortnight ago you liked the back view but not the front, last week you loved the front, but if you had any quibbles it was that you thought the additional back tails were awkward and…

Liberty of London aesthetic dress. Gorgeous.

Silk tea gown, ca. 1885, Liberty & Co. (British, f. London, 1875)

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Helen Gould, Jay Gould’s eldest daughter made the transition from dutiful and religious daughter to one of the foremost philanthropists and best-loved women of…

Embroidery lent itself well to the Arts and Crafts ideal of “truth to material,” ushering in more naturalistic forms for patterns and embroidery. Simple forms of native flowers and plants accented dresses, shirtwaists, outerwear, hats, handbags, collars, and gloves, as well as household textiles and home accents. Harmonious embroidery could be achieved through the use…