The Ornamented Being
Ornamented: -verb: Adorn; beautify
Be·ing: -noun: Fulfillment of possibilities; essential completeness
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Kimono-style tea gown, c.1905
“Elegant tea gowns were worn by society ladies in their homes before dinner. They could relax with loosened corsets hidden under the flowing designs. When Orientalism swept the fashion world, loose Eastern garments were adapted to be worn as tea gowns. Many were imported and sold by Liberty & Co. in London.
Oriental garments for the Western market are eagerly sought today by collectors as evening wear. This fine piece was made from Japanese fabric, probably in a Tokyo kimono shop for export to the West. The style was adapted for Western tastes, while retaining traditional Chinese sleeves. The sash is more like a scarf than an obi. Without the traditional padding, the gown is lightweight.
The kimono is fashioned from very pale peach (almost beige) silk crepe and is lined with matching silk crepe de chine. The kimono is skillfully hand embroidered with trailing vines of wisteria in shades of lavender and green.
The exotic floral design has a magic as potent and restorative as the deepest slumber. The leaves have the haunting verisimilitude of nature in full bloom. The ends of the sash are finished with hand-knotted silk fringe.”
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Some people don’t know what they want to study, they go to University and play musical chairs until they are happy. Then there are some people who have always known what they wanted to do.
I’m one of those people. I was eight when my Mom brought this home for me to play with and 13 years later that is what I am still playing with. Looking back I wonder if she could have ever imagined that a simple game could have defined my future.
Thank you Mom.
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I promise to stop spamming you with new photos from the collection but geez it’s all so beautful and new! I’m pretty sure I’ve died and gone to heaven.
Dress (Ball Gown)
House of Worth (French, 1858–1956)
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I’m pretty obsessed with this costume also.
“Another headdress was made from an antique piece of beading from an exotic dancer’s skirt, circa 1920. Part of the headdress comes down onto Portman’s forehead; the beads are then draped up over the rest of the headdress, which results in a bangs-like look. The accompanying dress was based on a Japanese kimono look, with Biggar adding unique designs of her own. She accentuated the sleeves quite a bit, calling them “penguin sleeves” because they were so rounded they looked somewhat like a penguin. Machine and hand embroideries were used for this complex creation.”
I’m not exactly sure how I went from historic embroidered costumes to Star Wars but I don’t really mind!
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Two words.
THE BACK!!!!!
This is also attributed to Callot Soeurs and is dated 1921.
The sides remind me of a furisode!
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It’s very Poiret-ish in style but it’s actually designed by the famous socialite and Titanic survivor Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon in 1910
Fun fact: The dress sold for $35,850 (without buyer’s premium) at Doyle New York in November of 2004.
Very in vogue with the Orientalism theme that captured this period.
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There are three of these in the closet of the museum I work and I meant to take photos and I forgot! Argh.
c.1875
Featured, is a fine early example of a type of dressing gown made in Japan for the Western market. Known as Yokohama robes, for the port from which they were shipped, they were some of the first items made for export after the opening of Japan to the West in 1854. The Yokohama port then opened in 1859. While the materials and embroidery are native Japanese, the cut and construction are Japanese interpretations of Western style and unrelated to traditional Japanese dress
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collegeculinary asked: Could you feature some antique kimono?
Oh! You just missed it! I forgot to post this one last time so that worked out quite well!!!!
KCI says: This tea gown was made in Japan to an order for Western market. Its shape is a mixture of details of the 18th century style and the medieval style, which was revived at the end of the 19th century. It is made of taffeta, known as “seigo” in Japan, and embroidered with chrysanthemum flowers in a Japanese embroidery technique known as “nikuirinui”.
Here are the two previous posts in case you missed them!
http://ornamentedbeing.tumblr.com/post/4514640576
http://ornamentedbeing.tumblr.com/post/4514844274
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My very first costume book was Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th century published by KCI when I was 12 and it sparked my obsession. The first time I looked through the book I used post it notes (that are still attached with a very childish cursive listing what my favorite items were on the page. Funny to see my tastes haven’t changed!) and this was marked with the word “adoration.” Nine years later the word ‘adoration” is still suitable for this dressing gown.
KCI says: This is a kimono-style indoor garment exported from Japan to Western countries. It was appropriated to Western markets with its extravagant design of embroidered cherry trees and a peacock, gussets patched on the sides, body flaring gently down to the hem, and a curved collar. Iida Takashimaya, the predecessor of the present Takashimaya department store, was a major kimono retailer in the Meiji era, and aggressively engaged in foreign trade business as early as the end of the 19th century. In the late 19th century a Japan boom spread in the Western countries, partly through world expositions held in various places. Westerners favored Japanese kimonos, sometimes remaking it as into fashionable dresses. In the 1880s, women in the West started to wear kimonos as indoor wear, which was less subject to social constraints, and kimonos became widely popular in Western countries up until the early 20th century. The Japanese word “kimono” is said to have first been used in France in 1876. Now in America and Europe it is generally used to indicate a loose robe worn indoors.
