Full Dress

English, c. 1760

Spitalfield's silk brocaded lustring

Gift of the Arizona Costume Institute 1983.c.94.A-B

Spitalfields, once the site of a twelfth-century hospital and previously known as "Hospital Fields," became a refuge for Protestant weavers fleeing religious persecution after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The woven silks that these artisans produced throughout the eighteenth century were renowned for their fineness and beauty. In 1756 one commentator remarked of the patterns produced by Spitalfields and others, "The spring opens her bountiful treasure every year, and clothes and enamels the earth with endless charms of beauty; she invites us to imitate her as near as possible in all her splendor. . . what should be the reason manufacturers should not exert their skill in furnishing ladies with dresses suitable to Spring, and garnish them with the sweet blossoms and flowers that season affords."

This robe à la française is made of a brocaded lustring, typical of Spitalfields design and quality. Lustring, a light crisp silk woven in a fine tabby, attained its high sheen through a particular treatment of the warp (lengthwise yarns). First coated with beer, the warp was then stretched and heated before weaving to impart crispness and shine to the fabric. Silk brocades, in which separate wefts form the all over, interwoven design of the raised motif, were one of the most widely used fabrics of the eighteenth-century. The most important and expensive part of an eighteenth-century dress was the textile, fineness in construction being the least important and least expensive.

   

This piece was worn for appearance at court or other formal occasions. It consists of an overdress with a closed bodice and open skirt that allows the separate petticoat or skirt to show.   

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