Dress #070: Aesthetic style dress in purple

This hand-stitched paper gown in the ‘artistic’ or ‘aesthetic’ style is based on an English dress designed for Liberty & Co. of London ca. 1905. The company was known for producing women’s fashions in the combination of classical, mediaeval, and renaissance styles favoured by the pre-Raphaelites. The style was a stark contrast to the heavily structured and corseted fashions of the time. I don't know about you, but I think I'd enjoy wearing this dress as I wander the city, looking for my knight. Or just grocery shopping.

The faint shimmer of handmade purple Japanese papers evokes the silk crepe of the underdress and silk velvet of the tabard. Hand-embroidered lines imitate the folds of the dress, with couched stitches and glass beads decorating the neckline and the bottom of the tabard. It is stitched onto cold-pressed 100% cotton paper. The original dress is held by the Victoria & Albert Museum (accession CIRC.638&A-1964).

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

Materials: Japanese paper, glass beads, and cotton floss on cotton paper