The Empire dress owes its name, physical emancipation, popularity, and even its sexiness to France. In this English example, French style is slavishly followed in the gown's high waist and modish stripes. But for all its classicizing details and shape, the gown retains vestiges of the ancien régime in its open-robe construction.
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Worn with C.I.37.46.1
Group, Left: CI 68.68.2; Center: CI 37.46.1; Right: 1976.142.1
"The Fine Art of Costume" exhibition 10/15/1954
Installation photography from The Costume Institute’s “Fine Art of Costume” (October 15, 1954–February 28, 1955).
Artwork Details
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Title:Dress
Date:1795–97
Culture:British
Medium:silk, cotton
Credit Line:Gift of Miss Irene Lewisohn, 1937
Accession Number:C.I.37.46.1
Museum of Costume Art. "A Designers' Exhibition of Costumes and Millinery," October 14, 1940–November 9, 1940.
Museum of Costume Art. "The Coming Silhouette," April 16, 1942–July 4, 1942.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Fine Art of Costume," October 15, 1954–February 28, 1955.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Art of Fashion," October 23, 1967–January 1, 1968.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Fashion Plate," October 21, 1971–January 15, 1972.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Eighteenth-Century Woman," December 12, 1981–September 5, 1982.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In Style: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Costume Institute," November 17, 1987–April 17, 1988.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire," December 12, 1989–April 15, 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Dress Rehearsal," August 1–October 28, 2001.
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The Costume Institute's collection of more than 33,000 costumes and accessories represents five continents and seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children.