Dress

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is a dress from the early 1830s, the Romantic period, in which sleeves became quite large and women were said to look like butterflies. From the Whittemore family, an influential New Hampshire family in the nineteenth century, the dress is beautifully made. While the sleeves are large, they are in proportion to a child's form. Made of a fine fabric which is sheer and lightweight, great care was taken to add a cotton facing at the bottom of the hem to give it weight, allowing the dress to move gracefully.

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