Black and Gold Beaded Dress

circa 1915
VC1992041

This evening dress demonstrates how women's fashion became more revealing and more liberating in the early twenthieth century, reflecting the new independent lifestyles that women were living.  The tubular, corset-less shape of this dress provides for a more natural silhouette like that which dress reform advocates had called for decades before.  Unbound by restrictive undergarments, women were free to move and dance as they pleased in more practical and healthy attire.

Though the beadwork of this dress has survived very well, many areas of net had deteriorated and had to be encapsulated in new netting. Loose pieces were reattached and reinforced, and tears in the skirt were repaired.

Researched and Stabilized by Aleksandra Kolanko '12