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 Detail of Evening Dress

  Detail of Madame Paul-Sigisbert Moitessier, née Marie-Clotilde-Inès de Foucauld, Seated

This ball gown is made of chiné silk, a textile in vogue during the second half of the eighteenth century and again in the mid-nineteenth century. The floral pattern, which almost appears as if it had been applied with watercolors, was achieved by printing the warp threads before they were woven, a technique appropriated from the Asian ikat tradition.

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