Author: Keren Ben-Horin

Downtown, Uptown: From the Dry Goods Store to the Palace of Consumption – Part II

19th century, thematic essays

This essay traces the evolution of New York’s shopping scene in the 19th century from the downtown dry goods store to the uptown “palace of consumption.”

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Downtown, Uptown: From the Dry Goods Store to the Palace of Consumption

19th century, thematic essays

This essay traces the evolution of New York’s shopping scene in the 19th century from the downtown dry goods store to the uptown “palace of consumption.”

Read More

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Though Victorian Era tea gowns were exclusively wo

Though Victorian Era tea gowns were exclusively worn in private spaces, they were still an opportunity for women to show off their taste and class, even while uncorseted at home. Aesthetically, these tea gowns were inspired by the Art Nouveau movement, 18th-century “sack back” robes à la française, and “Japonisme,” a trend fueled by the recent opening of Japan to the West. Late 19th century teagowns were also associated with the heavily romantic, artistic, and eclectic Aesthetic Movement. The most fashionable tea gowns coordinated with the interior of the parlor room, a reminder that women were always on display, even within their own home. Click the link in bio to learn more. 🫖🪷 #victorianfashion #19thcenturyfashion #dressinggown #antiqueclothing

How many Cochineal insects did it take to make 1 p

How many Cochineal insects did it take to make 1 pound of bright red dye? Here’s a hint: It's a lot more than you think. Much more. But if you said 70,000 dried insects (or 25,000 live ones), you're right! For thousands of years, cochineal dye had been made from the bodies of the Grana Cochinilla insect which fed on nopal cactus in areas like modern-day Mexico and Guatemala. The insects produced carminic acid as a self defense mechanism, and it is this carminic acid which is the foundation for the insect’s brilliant scarlet dye. After the brutal Spanish conquest and subsequent colonization, Spain shipped tons of the dyestuff to Europe where it immediately became in high demand, supporting Spain’s economy for generations. Known as “the perfect red,” cochineal is still in use today, though it’s more likely to make an appearance in food and cosmetics rather than clothing. 🌵💄🥫 #fashionhistory #fashioninstituteoftechnology #red

In this portrait by Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz, Do

In this portrait by Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz, Doña Tomasa is sixteen years old and about to enter the convent of Santa Brigida in Mexico of New Spain. In New Spain, young elite women, before entering the convent, would have portraits done to signify a continuing lineage of wealth and respectability connected to religious service. In this portrait, Tomasa wears traditional attire of mid-eighteenth century New Spain with lavish patterned textiles and solid black garments. She wears a black velvet cut-away bodice lined with flowers over an elaborate triangular stomacher decorated with gold jewelry that matches the fabric of a gold brocaded silk skirt. Beauty marks, known as chiqueadors and made of satin or velvet, in the shape of a sun, moon, and star decorate her temple. A simple, lightly powdered updo is topped with jeweled black fabric tiara pearls, also abundant in New Spain, adorn her neckline. Her fan, closed and pointed to her right, indicates her forthcoming introduction to the convent. The legacy of Spanish fashion today is exemplified in a Dolce & Gabbana SS 2015 show, displaying an abundance of fitted, adorned bodices, full brocaded skirts, lace, jewels, and religious components. Read more at link in bio! #fashionhistory #arthistory #blackdress #floraldress #velvet

Along with the shift in the African textile market

Along with the shift in the African textile market due to China’s influence on the textile industry, a parallel evolution can be seen in fashion trends in some African countries, like Mozambique. One specific example is the evolving capulana styles in Mozambique. This image shows a capulana (a sarong-style dress popular in Mozambique and other parts of Africa) with a motif that closely resembles the traditional Chinese dragon motif along with a more African-styled border along the edge of the garment.

The collection included many pieces that combined modern and traditional fashion elements. Lambo also incorporated subtle Chinese components into her designs. This image shows a sumptuous blue dress that has a side split and form-fitting silhouette that looks like a modern interpretation of a traditional qipao. Rather than a placket-like side split in a qipao,
Lambo’s dress has no true side seam and instead, uses a crisscrossing lacing system. Another piece in her collection is a two-piece ensemble that uses appliqués with floral motifs resembling Chinese rose flowers. The pants feature a closure at the center front and at the bottom edge of the pants, reminiscent of traditional Chinese knotted button closures. On the other hand, the bright salmon pink of the ensemble is a bold color choice that is more customary in contemporary African fashion.

This corset from 1880 is made from bright red wool

This corset from 1880 is made from bright red wool and is edged with a delicate white cotton lace trim along the top. Like other fashionable corsets of the late Victorian era, this garment features a smooth ‘hourglass’ silhouette with a large bust, small waist, and full, rounded hips. This impressive silhouette is created through careful shaping of fabric panels. In order to maintain a smooth look, this corset is fully boned with a combination of flexible baleen and steel boning. This garment includes contrasting cream stitching along the numerous boning channels throughout the corset and along the bottom edge, as well as cream embroidery on the bust gussets. It is lined in white silk.

The corset was an essential garment in a woman’s wardrobe during the 1880s. After the Industrial Revolution, corsets were often manufactured using steel boning, which was both more durable than baleen/whalebone and stiffer than cording. This allowed for corsets to take on new silhouettes after 1840, one of which was called the “hour-glass” and was highly desirable during the 1880s and 1890s.

The invention of the two-part busk made corsets easier to use for women who could not afford a maidservant or have a family member to help them dress. Not only could corsets be taken on and off more easily, but advances in manufacturing allowed for cheaper, ready-to-wear corsets to become available to working women. As a result, corsets became a part of most women’s daily dress, and by the 1880s the corset had “become a very elegant and desirable object.”

The red corset shown was made in France in 1880 and would have been considered a highly fashionable garment that was often worn. Its modern construction (a steel spoon busk and boning) and creative material (red wool outer fabric and a silk lining) made it a top-of-the-line foundation garment for a highly fashionable French woman.

This corset’s hourglass silhouette, which may have been padded out with inserts, exaggerated a woman’s curves into the desired body shape of the period.

Did you know the row of bows down the front of Mad

Did you know the row of bows down the front of Madame de Pompadour’s stomacher has a specific name? This type of decoration is called an échelle or eschelle, and it was popular throughout Europe from the late 17th to late 18th centuries. The style of gown these appear on is called a robe à la francaise, and the bows are arranged like a ladder, from largest at the top to smallest near the waist. As the king’s mistress and France’s trendsetter during the reign of Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour revived this style and made it de rigueur for fashionable ladies. #madamedepompadour #18thcenturyfashion #fashionhistory

Have you ever heard of a banyan? Popular in the la

Have you ever heard of a banyan? Popular in the late 17th to early 19th centuries, banyans were a type of loose, informal dressing gown men - and sometimes women - would wear around the home. These dressing gowns were made of silk, cotton, or wool, and sometimes lined in a bright fabric so they could be turned inside-out. Men who wore banyans were often wealthy and wore banyans in their studies/libraries, and thus wearing a banyan became associated with intellectual life. The word “banyan” is derived from the Hindu words “banian” and “banjan” indicating the rising influences of colonialism and orientalism in Western Europe at the time. #historicalfashion #mensfashion

Summer, an 1876 portrait by James Tissot, is exemp

Summer, an 1876 portrait by James Tissot, is exemplary of the French painter’s obsession with sheer muslin dresses decorated with yellow bows and his emphasis on depicting ordinary, modern life. In the portrait, Tissot’s model wears a white summer afternoon dress trimmed with lemon-yellow bows and consisting of a skirt with narrow, ruffled flounces. The dress also features a jacketed bodice, high ruffled collar, and ruffled sleeves. It is unclear whether the model is inviting someone in or leaving. Her social status is also in question, and she is standing in front of a billiard’s room, which is typically associated with men. Despite the dress, its bow details, and ruffled pleats being considered fashionable for the time, Tissot still received much criticism for the ordinariness of the painting. Oscar Wilde described the painting in University Magazine: “Mr. Tissot’s over-dressed, common-looking people, and ugly, painfully accurate representation of modern soda-water bottles!” Nonetheless, Tissot continued to paint the same dress in three other portraits titled Spring, Seaside, and The Gallery of HMS Calcutta. Read more at link in bio!

During the Renaissance, creating textiles was extr

During the Renaissance, creating textiles was extremely expensive and time-consuming, so clothing was often recycled. If a dress was torn, stained, or became too small for its wearer, it would be cut, re-stitched, and reused as a seat cushion cover, for example, or clothing for children. Further, fabric decays quickly relative to other materials. As a result, there are very few full ensembles surviving from the Renaissance. Because pieces of clothing (and complete outfits) are so scarce, we must instead rely on pictorial media to understand what Renaissance peoples considered fashionable.
Fra Filipo Lippi’s Portrait of a woman, painted around 1445 is a touchstone for fifteenth-century female beauty and dress. The dress style in Portrait of a woman is typically fifteenth-century. Fashionable gowns positioned female waistlines above the hips, accentuated the waist with a belt or girdle, and generously poured uninterrupted volumes of fabric towards the feet. These gowns, which are referred to in period inventories as a gonna, gonnella, sottana, gamurra, or cotta interchangeably, could be hemmed at the ankles or floor. A wealthy early modern woman wore at least three—often four—complete layers of clothing in public. On special occasions a woman would wear another gown atop the gamurra called a giornea, usually patterned and made of velvet or silk brocade.
Women’s clothing in the sixteenth century remained similarly structured, with several layers beneath a sumptuous principle gown. However, a wider range of textures and additional detailing became fashionable.
Female portraiture depicts not specific individuals, but rather their lavish clothing and jewelry. Women were meant to be decorous and decorative. Virtue, familial expectation, and attractiveness were deeply conflated.

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