American Fashions – Autumn 1904

A young woman is dressed for the evening in ball gown She stands in a three-quarter profile view and leans against the mantle of a (suggested) fireplace. The scroll-work on the fireplace indicates a well-appointed home where the young woman holds a sheet of paper, which might be a sheet of music, a letter, a menu, or a program.

She is wearing a coral colored evening gown decorated with lace trim and appliques. Her dress has a high lace collar, and the bodice has sets of three graduated white and coral lace appliques that overlap and are symmetrical across the front, and two more on each side at the back. The yoke of the bodice above the lace is of a diaphanous fabric, crossed by two vertical straps of lace, at the shoulder and above, and another wider band at the center front.

The lower section of the bodice is of a deeper coral color, possibly of velvet. The sleeves begin with another lace element at the top, with hanging sleeves of the diaphanous fabric, open at the front, and hanging to hip level in back. The gored skirt has a flared trumpet shape with a short train.

The skirt appears to have a top layer of diaphanous fabric with light trailing bands of lace flowers and vines down the center of each gore. At the hem a softly pleated under layer shows below the scalloped hem of the upper layer, which ends with a detail like that of the lace on the bodice, with flowers reaching up surrounded with dots or spangles, to about knee length. She wears a narrow gold belt with a jeweled clasp with hanging details, and elbow length white gloves. Behind her at the right is a small back view of the gown.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges