Ensemble, dress ensemble

This gown and matching stomacher are made of very fine silk. Because of its shine or lustre, the fabric was called a lustring or lutestring. The process of 'lustrating' involved stretching and moistening the textile. In a 1756 treatise, silk designers are advised that ornaments for lustring ‘must be open and airy’ so as not to obscure the glazed ground.

The small flower pattern in off-white woven into the pale blue background suggests a date of around 1755 for the fabric. The cut of the dress is at least a decade later and there is evidence in the bodice that darts have been unpicked. The dress might have been changed to a a more fashionable shape or altered for another wearer.

The dress was part of the trousseau of the great-great-grandmother of the person who donated it to the Museum in the late 1950s. Inside the armhole of the right sleeve is stiched a rectangular linen tag with the name 'Louise' handwritten in ink.