Dress

Ivory coloured silks billow out in four openings at the top of the sleeves of this dress. The puffed trimmings are inspired by the fashionable slashing of garments in the Renaissance period when the top fabric was cut to reveal a coloured lining or garment worn underneath. Here, a long rectangular strip of ivory silk is stitched to the inside of the sleeve head and the excess gathered into puffs through the openings. The 19th-century version of slashing is much more controlled by cut, stitching and piped edges, rather than the raw cuts in fabric seen in the 16th century.