Court gown, 1760s
French
Cloth-of-silver brocaded with silver lace trim
Technical Glossary
French
Cloth-of-silver brocaded with silver lace trim
Gift of Fédération de la Soirie, 1950 (50.168.2a,b)
Western chinoiserie is often a compound of exotic elements, not all indigenous to China. This eighteenth-century dress exhibits such multiple allusions, but they have been assimilated by the technology and aesthetic of Lyonnais manufacture. Palm trees signify the foreign, and the pagoda-inspired follies—Eastern architecture transplanted to the West—are posts with tented swags.
