Dress #077: 1920s dress in black and bronze. 2016

This hand-stitched black and bronze gown is based on a French evening dress by the Callot Soeurs of Paris, from ca. 1925. The four Callot sisters opened their first salon in Paris, creating blouses and lingerie. By the 1920s they had stores in Nice, Biarritz, Buenos Aires, and London, and were known for simple lines, lavish embroidery, and oriental influences.

Rich black Nepalese paper is trimmed with bronze Japanese paper and accented with glass beads. The newly abbreviated length of dresses in the 1920s was perfect for dancing the Charleston with Daisy Buchanan at one of Jay Gatsby’s lavish parties. Or perhaps Phryne Fisher wore something similar during her Paris days. The original dress is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession 1978.288.8).

The dress is six inches tall, stitched by hand on 8x10 inch 100% cotton watercolour paper, which means that it will pop right into any commercial frame in that size, and be ready to hang on your wall.

Materials: Nepalese paper, Japanese paper, glass beads and cotton floss on cotton paper