Silver Lamé Sack-back Gown - Robe à la française

At official occasions English society ladies dressed, according to the latest French fashion, in the robe à la française. This sack-back gown displays a loose back fold and laterally swinging, oval skirt, and is made from precious silver lamé woven in England’s Spitalfields. The manteau edges are adorned from the shoulder to hem with pleated ribbons that wind around each other in S-forms from the waist downward. A richly decorated stomacher adorns the low neckline. The skirt displays a curved valance trim with huge tassels of flattened metal wire and the medium length sleeves end in a double valance. All edging of the gown and decorations are outlined with ornamental silver lace trimming. In spite of the generous use of the precious metal and the prodigious decorations, the gown does not look overly florid and is a dignified expression of the elegant gown art of the Rococo period. As interwoven silver materials have been documented numerous times in English weddings that have taken place in the highest noble circles, it is entirely possible that the gown, along the also preserved shoes, was worn as a wedding gown (Ribeiro 1984).