Robe (Kimono)

Ethel Wallace first encountered batik, a Southeast Asian method of wax-resist dyeing for textiles, in the late 1910s when her friend and opera singer Éva Gauthier introduced it to her. Wallace soon incorporated the method into her own work, creating batik “paintings” on cloth and batik fashions. Fashion historian Dr. Michael Mamp notes that this robe is one of two surviving examples of Wallace’s batik clothing.