Afternoon dress
Like the 1830s corset, the 1840s style expanded with gussets at the hipline supporting a full-skirted silhouette. The torso, however, was visually attenuated by center-front vee extending below the waist into the abdomen. This deep dip of the torso re-created the effect of the pointed waist of the eighteenth century, but the corsetting is specifically nineteenth century, rounding to the chest cavity to create a cylinder.
Artwork Details
- Title: Afternoon dress
- Date: 1840s
- Culture: American
- Medium: silk
- Credit Line: Gift of Professor Talbot Hamlin, 1954
- Object Number: C.I.X.54.10.24
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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