Fabric and Fashion

During the years 1979 to 1989, the Costume and Textiles Department made over three hundred acquisitions by gift and purchase. Approximately thirty to forty of the finest of these will be included in the exhibition. The exhibition will illustrate the depth and richness of the collections. Included in the exhibition will be the Department's most recent purchase, a magnificent 18th-century French flowered silk gown. Also on view will be a 17th-century Indo-Portuguese embroidered coverlet, a 17th-century Venetian cut velvet panel, a Quaker dress and cloak in pheasant-egg-colored silk, a late 19th-century embroidered hanging from the English Arts and Crafts movement, a Fortuny dress of black velvet stenciled in gold (Italian, c. 1930), and an 18th-century Japanese gold-and-silver stamped silk Noh under robe.