Dress

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

By the 1830s, dresses had grown so voluminous as to require padding and numerous petticoats to support the large sleeves and wide skirts. In this dress, the extraordinary sleeves appear to compete with the skirt in width. The simultaneous inflation of sleeves and skirt created, by contrast to the corseted waist, the illusion of a smaller midriff.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art