Afternoon dress

Afternoon dress

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The popularity of black in the second half of the nineteenth century was stimulated by the introduction of chemical dyes of that color in the 1860s. While tasteful and timeless, black remained associated with death and the garb of the widow—a woman often imagined as dangerously independent and alluring. Appropriate for third-stage mourning, this black silk faille dress blurs the distinction between mourning and fashion, and its original use remains unknown. Cut with princess seams, the dress forms the tight, smooth fit over the hips that epitomized late 1870s fashions.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.