#2652 $1,450 Reserved
Hand-embroidered tea dress, c.1905
Romantic tea dresses from the early 20th century make lovely wedding dresses, offering one-of-a-kind design at a great price. With gracefully full sleeves and charming back detail, here is an exemplar of the style.
The dress is fashioned from sheer white cotton batiste lavishly embellished with padded hand embroidery and lace inserts. I love the flounce of ruffles behind the scalloped skirt hem. The bodice has a white cotton net under bodice and an inner petersham.
During the wedding service, when your back is to the audience, they will notice the embroidered back skirt panel extending upward over the waist to the bodice. This could be emphasized by running the sash behind the panel. Such seemingly insignificant details, half-consciously perceived, raise fashion from a craft to an art form.
The pale peach satin sash is probably a replacement. The dress closes in back with hooks and snaps on the bodice and with tiny self-covered buttons on the skirt. The attention to finishing detail suggests it was expensive when new. The sheer dress will need a slip.
To modern eyes, a white tea dress conveys the engaging simplicity of the Edwardian period. Yet the tea gown likely had a more sophisticated fashion ancestry: the French peignoir, with which it shared a loose shape and soft lines.
I can still see the dress' original owner, Céleste, turning to her husband, home early to preview the heavenly gown, an hour before the guests were to arrive for tea. As she showered upon him the celestial torrent of her smile, he was equally dazzled by the gown and by its wearer. She replied to his awkward compliment with a gem-like glance, tinged with humility and gratitude.
The condition is excellent. It is clean and ready to wear.
It measures: 38" bust, 28" waist, 40" hip, 16" from shoulder to waist, and 57" from shoulder to hem.
