Dress
Date: 1920s
Materials: silk, glass seed beads
2018.02
Label: none
White silk crepe dress with silk liner. Vertical beading with chevron designs at waist. Scalloped bottom hem. Cutout design at neckline and nape. Beads are a metallic silver glass. Feather or inverted palm designs at waist and bust.
Measurements:
Bust - 32 inches
Waist - 30 inches
Shoulders - 13 inches
More Information: Unlike many of the other 1920s evening dresses during the time period, this gown isn’t quite as sack-like as the others, slightly outlining the curves of the wearer. Potentially influenced by clothing in the painted reliefs found throughout Egyptian tombs, this dress is extremely narrow throughout the bust and hips, much like what Voguehighlighted in its April 1923 edition. Alongside several Egyptian figures, the magazine declared, “The [Egyptian] gown is so straight and narrow, that it outlines the figure slightly. The mode on the Nile centuries ago was as narrow as the figure permitted. The silhouette of ancient Egypt was wholly a matter of feminine grace.” The lack of demarcation at the waist further emphasizes the narrowness of the wearer’s flapper silhouette. And while the influence behind the design and beading cannot be confirmed as Egyptian, the heavy silver beading at the central focus of natural waist does resemble inverted Egyptian palm fronds.