Garden Party
This miniature 18th-century dress captures the joy of celebration and the luxury of leisure time. Every element is constructed from vintage sewing pattern paper - the dress itself dyed a delicate peachy-pink using a blend of garden materials, including rose petals, beets, berries, and onion skins. Ruffled trim adorns the sleeves, decorative bows perch at each shoulder, and a delicate lace-effect sash cinches the waist. Each embellishment is carefully crafted and applied by hand.
For middle-class women in the 18th century, social occasions like garden parties, theatre evenings, and assembly room gatherings offered precious opportunities to dress festively and enjoy themselves. Unlike their working-class counterparts, whose days were consumed by labour, these women had the means for finer trimmings and the leisure time to apply them. A dress like this represented not just clothing, but celebration - the pleasure of attending an event, of being seen, of participating in the social world beyond home and work.
The botanical dyes that colour this dress create a fitting harmony: garden-grown colours for a garden party, pink petals and berries transformed into fabric transformed into festivity. Housed in a vintage gold frame with coral matting, the piece preserves that sense of special occasion, of a day marked as different, as joyful.
Garden Party
This miniature 18th-century dress captures the joy of celebration and the luxury of leisure time. Every element is constructed from vintage sewing pattern paper - the dress itself dyed a delicate peachy-pink using a blend of garden materials, including rose petals, beets, berries, and onion skins. Ruffled trim adorns the sleeves, decorative bows perch at each shoulder, and a delicate lace-effect sash cinches the waist. Each embellishment is carefully crafted and applied by hand.
For middle-class women in the 18th century, social occasions like garden parties, theatre evenings, and assembly room gatherings offered precious opportunities to dress festively and enjoy themselves. Unlike their working-class counterparts, whose days were consumed by labour, these women had the means for finer trimmings and the leisure time to apply them. A dress like this represented not just clothing, but celebration - the pleasure of attending an event, of being seen, of participating in the social world beyond home and work.
The botanical dyes that colour this dress create a fitting harmony: garden-grown colours for a garden party, pink petals and berries transformed into fabric transformed into festivity. Housed in a vintage gold frame with coral matting, the piece preserves that sense of special occasion, of a day marked as different, as joyful.
Materials: Vintage sewing pattern paper, natural dyes, board, velvet
Frame: Fibreboard, Polystyrene plastic
Care: Keep away from direct sunlight to preserve the colours
