Dress

Woman's navy blue sleeveless silk dress. It has a deep décolletage and decorative buttons on the front with a zip at the back. The skirt has three layers with reinforcement at the bottom to keep it full.

Given the style and quality of the cloth and the manufacture, it probably belonged to a well-off urban dweller from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. From the eighteenth century on, the wealthier classes began to abandon traditional folk garments. The Basque upper middle classes and aristocracy, who had strong trading (and later industrial) links overseas, were close followers of international fashion, especially from Paris and London.

The cloth is made using the “gros de tours” technique; i.e., the weft is wider than the warp.

It comes from the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa’s I. Atxukarro collection.

Bibliography:

Mujika Goñi, Amaia… et al. Boladaz pasatua : [erakusketa] = Pasado de moda : [exposición]. Bilbao : Euskal Arkeologia, Etnografia eta Kondaira Museoa = Museo Arqueológico, Etnográfico e Histórico Vasco, 2003.

Inventory number: GFA-0017439-001