Dolman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A form of negilgée, this wrapper is related to the highly elaborated teagowns which became fashionable at-home wear during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. As the vogue for teagowns took hold, they became less like dressing gowns and more like evening dress, even as, in the opposite direction, evening dresses began to take on more of the frothy embellishments of teagowns. The elaborate finish and ornament of this wrapper reflects the ambiguity of this merging of the decorative effects of eveningwear and intimate apparel.

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