Dressing gown, ca. 1880
Japanese for Western market
Quilted blue silk
Technical Glossary
Japanese for Western market
Quilted blue silk
Gift of Katherine Babcock Cavalli, 1970 (1970.83a,b)
Dressing gown, late 1880s
Japanese for Western market
Quilted brown silk
Gift of Theodore Fischer Ellis, 1975 (1975.227.7a,b)
In the nineteenth century, Japan produced prodigiously for its new Western market. Economic initiative spurred the creation of consumer items exclusively for the export market. At the same time, Japan began a massive consumption of Western goods, chiefly in the sectors of heavy industry and engineering. Quilted dressing gowns like these are for an occasion and of a style that would never have been operative in Japan. For the European customer, the pattern of late-spring flowers, insects, and lotuses evoked exotic origins, mitigated by accommodations to Western style.
