I would appreciate some feedback from the list members on this item that
is nagging at me.
The Autry Museum here in Los Angeles has just opened a new exhibit
called "California Style: Art and Fashion from the California Historical
Society". Here is a link to the museum's main page:
http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/
One of the items they are using to showcase the exhibit is right there
on the front page, a red velvet dress circa 1883. Here's a link to the
page on the dress itself:
http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/california4.php
The thing that is really nagging at me is they keep calling it an
evening dress and it really isn't an evening. You =might= get away with
calling it a "dinner" dress, but not an evening dress proper. Granted,
I'm a costumer, so I tend to notice these details, but that
mis-identification seems pretty blatant to me, and I was wondering if it
struck anyone else that way, too.
Thanks for your input,
Julie
PS - This isn't the first time I've encountered the mis-identification
of a costume at the Autry. Several years ago they had two dresses on
display in the front lobby that were very clearly mid-1850's, and yet
the card identified them as 1873. Trust me, no way were these dresses
from 1873. They were made from very delicate muslin, stamped with a
geometric floral pattern, full bell-shaped skirts, without even the
slightest hint yet of even the elliptical shape that was to come in the
1860's, let alone a bustle silhouette (and no, they weren't displayed
wrong). They both had straight waists, no curve or point at all, long
bishop-type sleeves ending in a buttoned cuff. One buttoned down the
front, one hooked down the back (lovely cartridge pleating on both
dresses), and so on. There was enough attention to fashionable detail
that the person who made the dresses did =not= make them 20 years out of
style. I put a comment card in at the front desk and some time later
actually received a call from the person who (ostensibly) donated the
gowns to the museum. Said they were made by an ancestor (great
grandmother or something like that) who made them when she first came to
the US in the 1870's. I'm afraid I argued with him, cited several
standard costume texts that he could reference for comparison, mentioned
all the points I stated above, but he was...unconvinced, shall we say.
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