Sack-back Gown - Robe à la française

This robe à la française is particularly splendid. Flower bouquets held by bows and woven silver butterflies appear between the woven gold longitudinal strips of the luxurious fabric. The tailored front wings of the manteau form an elongated pointed waist, the short sleeves extend just the elbow and have no trim. Manteau and jupe, however, are lavishly decorated with broad silk gauze stripes that are interwoven with flattened silver wire. The pleated gauze stripes are held by tender vines that are endowed with small silk-ribbon blossoms, leaflets of red overdyed metal foil and small green fly fringe. Tassels of red foil ribbons and flattened silver wire hang from blue and white loops and provide additional accents. Gauze strip underlain with cotton offers additional plasticity to the trim.