Green Day Dress

6
Green Day Dress of Taffeta and Velvet
#VC1992014
 
circa 1895
silk, cotton, metal
 
This taffeta day dress from the mid-1890s, representing a style frequently worn by Vassar women when photographed, incorporates menswear-inspired lapels and stand collar into fashionable women’s wear. The style is a compromise between more extremely feminine styles like the white bridesmaid’s dress and the more heavily masculinized women’s suits. Such a compromise offered women the opportunity to symbolically reject the most extreme forms of femininity without risking backlash for defying social norms.