Dress #128: Late Victorian skirt suit Victorian dress Nepalese paper in gold scallops

Nepalese paper in gold scallops on black stands in for black cotton adorned with a profusion of tiny metallic and black glass beads

This little helix atrolabiata snail was documented by Wilhelm Kobelt in Russia in 1903

Glass beads stand in for the buttons that run down each side of the bodice

while the bodice

It features the high waist and flowing drapery of the early 1910s

Dress #128: Late Victorian skirt suit Victorian dress Nepalese paper in gold scallopsThis hand stitched paper ensemble is based on a style of skirt suit called a tailormade. The original suit, made of bottle green wool with velvet lapels, dates from ca. 1900 and is held by the McCord Stewart Museum (accession M977. 44. 2. 1 2). Tailormades were typically made of wool, and fashioned after a mans jacket; they would typically be worn with a shirtwaist, also based on mens clothing. This suit was made by William St. Pierre, a tailor