Dress

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This mourning dress incorporates the puffed sleeves and ornate hem details that defined 1820s fashions. Standards for family mourning were modeled after court conventions. Upon a royal death in England, orders were issued detailing the duration of each phase of mourning and appropriate materials. Silk satins, taffetas, and velvet, considered too glossy and sumptuous for the first stage, were permitted later.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art