Descriptions

Silk taffeta bodice and skirt embroidered in silk thread and straw-work.

During the Victorian period a range of brilliant colours began to be produced using chemical aniline dyes. The first of these to be discovered created a shade of purple known as ‘Perkin’s mauve’, after the Glasgow chemist William Perkin. Dubbed ‘poor man's gold’, straw was used as a substitute for gold thread. Amazingly versatile, it transformed plain woven fabrics.

(skirt: 66/1974/2, 650mm waist, 1050mm length)

This object is not on display.