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Leimomi (she/her)
@thedreamstress

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This luxurious Edwardian day dress belonged to Martha F, Harris Hynes (1882-1946), the grandmother of the donor: Julia Wallace. The museum dates the dress to 1900-1909, but the wide shoulder berthe effect and sleeve shape of this dress were most fashionable in 1907-8. I feel comfortable narrowing the dating to 1906-9. Martha was 24-28 when she wore this gown: young, but likely married, not a debutante.⁠ ⁠ The dress is made from pastel floral warp printed silk: a fabric where the warp threads were printed with a pattern before the fabric was woven, resulting in a characteristic blurred ‘watercolour’ effect. Warp printed silks were very fashionable in the late Victorian era and first two decades of the 20th century. Their soft, blurred patterning worked well with the extremely frilly, feminine aesthetic, and the pattern gave a nod back to 18th century fashion, which was used as a point of inspiration for Edwardian fashion. They were also known as chiné silks, or chiné a la branche. ⁠ ⁠ If you look closely at the fabric of this dress you can see that it has both a floral chiné pattern, and a brocaded pattern, creating a double layer of texture and colour.⁠ ⁠ The dress was the focus of a Rate the Dress post on my blog a few weeks ago. While ratings are closed you can still read more about it and see bigger pictures of it by following the link in my bio to the post.⁠ ⁠ Dress, 1900-1909 (1906-9), warp printed silk, Goldstein Museum of Design, 2006.043.003⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #edwardian #edwardianfashion #edwardianstyle #textilehistory #chinealabranche #edwardianhistory #1900s #1900sstyle #1900sfashion #fashionhistory #historicalfashion #chinesilk #warpprintedsilk #1900sdress #edwardiandress #thedreamstress