Dress

Maroon and yellow pleated folds cascade down the front of this dress concealing the button fastenings. The frills are composed of two narrow lengths of silk which have been knife pleated and then twisted backwards and forwards. This type of trimming was highly fashionable during the 1870s, and pleated flounces also formed elaborate decoration on the front, back, hems and trains of skirts.

Creating such regular pleats by hand would have been extremely time-consuming, and contemporary fashion magazines are full of advertisements for 'Kilting Machines', otherwise known as pleating machines. Manufacturers promised that these machines could kilt (knife-pleat) any fabric by steam from the lightest silk to the heaviest serge, with excellent and long-lasting results.