Dress

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the nineteenth century, the marked increase in the cultivation of varieties of roses coincided with the possibilities of accurate woven representations of botanicals. This dress from the middle years of the century uses a technically sophisticated representation of floral clusters. It is a chiné or warp-weave, challenging the impulse to naturalism with a technique prone to blurred image. Nonetheless, it is a triumph of simulation, including shading that gives the illusion of three-dimensionality to the flowers.

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