Dress #071.4: 1920s dress in black and gold. 2019

This hand-stitched black and gold dress is based on an American or European gown from ca. 1928, just when Phryne Fisher was making a splash in St. Kilda’s, Melbourne. The dress hangs in two tiers, with each edged in Japanese tissue to imitate the floating layers of the original. Japanese chiyogami paper in gold on black stands in for black cotton adorned with a profusion of tiny metallic and black glass beads. It is stitched onto cold-pressed 100% cotton paper. The original dress is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession 1981.454.15). Just picture Miss Fisher as she tangoes the night away, or imagine Daisy Buchanan dancing the Charleston in this lovely gown.

The dress is six inches tall, stitched by hand on 8x10 inch 100% cotton watercolour paper, which means that it will pop right into any commercial frame in that size, and be ready to hang on your wall.

Materials: Chiyogami, Japanese tissue and cotton floss on cotton paper