Dress and undersleeves (detail)

Dress, c. 1850. American. Printed wool challis.
Undersleeves, c. 1845–50. Cotton.
This dress epitomizes the restrained femininity of women’s daywear in the 1840s, with its simple embellishment of narrow velvet ribbon on the sleeves and decorative gold buttons down the front. The forest green, floral challis fabric reflects the period’s interest in nature. The design of the dress takes inspiration from the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries in its capped and belled sleeves, and its elongated, pointed waist.