Late 1840s American mourning dress – ca. 1848 – with black and white horizontal stripes in silk fabric. The fan bodice has a piped waist and very light vee waistline. On the first photo we see the dress adorned with a white lace trim at the scoop neckline which matches the trim on the remarkable elbow length black fingerless lace mittens. I love the gauziness of the dress. The widening quarter length sleeves are made up of layers (I don’t know the technical term for that), and the bodice has three or four horizontal lines of decorative seams – I don’t know the technical term for that either but it looks very nice in contrast to the vertical lines of the dress, and it kind of repeats the pattern of the piping in the waistline. The dress is part of the MET Museum collection.
