Dress

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

While among the most prized pieces of historical clothing and occasionally seen in vintage clothing sales, the cotton dresses of the 1880s are seldom preserved in fine condition, as they were made of a fine batiste cotton. Further, they must often have become elements of family theatricals ("the grandmother") and enactments early in this century, many becoming altered and abused in the process. This fine day dress with a trained bustle skirt could be a textbook example.

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