Ensemble

This ensemble represents a popular style of informal dress for women in the 1760s. Known by the French name ‘pet-en-l’air’, it comprises a short jacket in the style of a sack-back gown worn over a petticoat. The silk is very unusual, bearing three different methods of decoration: weaving, embroidery and paint.

When Beatrix Potter was writing one of her books for children, The Tailor of Gloucester, in 1903, she visited the Museum for inspiration on 18th-century dress. This is one of the garments she was shown. In The Tailor of Gloucester there appears a little mouse wearing this splendid ensemble with a mob cap.