# Woman's Day Dress

- By: Made in France with cotton imported from India
- Date: c. 1800
- Medium: Cotton, hand-spun, hand-woven plain weave called mulmul or muslin
- Classification: Costume and Accessories
- Dimensions: Approximately: H.: 152.4 cm (60 in.)
- Culture: India
- Credit line: Belle M. Borland Endowment Fund
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/250437)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/a3cf4c44-95e4-8fc1-cdcc-6c0b8a6a19ac/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Indian cotton weavers have been creating delicate, sheer textiles for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Elite men and women on the Indian subcontinent valued such fine, cotton muslin—a specialty of Bengal that was made entirely by hand—for fashionable clothing.

White cotton dresses first appeared in French fashion in the 1780s; the simplicity of the delicate column-like silhouette was seen as an ideal expression of Neoclassical femininity, a look inspired by Classical Greek and Roman statuary. The quality of this cotton was nearly impossible to replicate using European industrial methods, adding to its cachet.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0