Evening ensemble

This dress from the wardrobe of Elizabeth Parke Firestone reflects her keen sense of style, marked by strong silhouettes and sophisticated taste in textiles. In her correspondence with the couture houses she patronized, Firestone gave particular attention to the selection of fabrics. She especially favored shades of pink or blue and carefully evaluated fabric swatches she received from the ateliers under varied lighting conditions before finalizing her choices.

The silk taffeta selected for this dress is produced by warp printing, a technique in which sections of the warp threads are dyed before being woven, which creates a softly blurred pattern in the finished fabric. The 1950s saw a resurgence in the popularity of these textiles, when their impressionistic effects suited the romantic spirit of contemporary fashions. In muted pastels with floral motifs, such fabrics recalled warp-printed silks of the second half of the eighteenth century, known as chiné, a specialty of French weavers during an era when France was a leader in the production of luxury silk textiles.