Afternoon dress

Unknown

1940 · silk · Costume Institute

With the onset of war, the values of utility and patriotic zeal commingled. Jewelry, accessories, and even dresses became fields on which to write the American spirit. Such practicality and fervor are always dissonant with high style or fashion derived from the European model. American designer sportswear was already independent of Europe before World War II; its rhetorical position had already been vigorously argued and perceived as an authentic American sensibility. That this anonymous dress focuses on unusual buttons and a practical hood only corroborates its distinctively American personality.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1940

Medium

silk

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Gift of Miss Janet Hollander, 1940