Caftan

‘Rainbow’, silk with printed pattern of stripes with tonal gradation. From the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries there was a movement in Vienna to create a new form of art led by the Viennese successionists. Influenced by this, the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) was established in 1903 with the aim of permeating art into every aspect of daily life under the motto, ‘Art Belongs to Everybody’. With this aim of fusing art and daily life, the workshop worked on the total design of living space, furniture, fixtures and fashion. In 1911 Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill established the fashion section there and the textile section was begun soon afterwards.
The main financial backer of the Werkstätte since 1915, Otto Primavesi, and his wife, Eugenie, asked the leader of the workshop, Josef Hoffmann, to produce a country home for them in Moravia, Czechoslovakia. The Primavesi’s were introduced to Gustav Klimt by Hoffman and Klimt was to become a regular visitor to their country home. The caftan shown here belonged to the Primavesis and it is easy to imagine the artists who came to stay with them wearing it. The textile design is the work of the designer from the Werkstätte, Dagobert Peche. It is a very simple garment, just two pieces of square material sewn together, but despite this it has a dignified character.