Mac-ing Art!

I'm so sorry my drawing of the dress is not that great but it's alright because I will not be an artist when I grow up.

Artist- Liberty and Company
Title- Evening dress
Date- 1880s
Medium- Silk
Size- I'm not entirely sure how to answer this given that it is a dress but it's fine. It looks like a size small or medium maybe. Who knows?

The dress was created in the 1880s. The company who created the dress, Liberty and Company, began designing evening dresses in 1884, under the watch of E.A. Godwin. Godwin prided himself in his views that evening dresses should be based on Grecian draping and classical form, a view that he shared with Oscar Wilde. The dress is draped in a way that can be classified as neoclassical. The dress also features a lightly boned bodice along with a traditional underskirt of the time period at hand.

Woman along with the ideals of woman's beauty at the time are represented within the creation of this dress. The style of the dress was inspired by Wilde's belief that a dress should be a reflection of grace and reality of the time at hand, being the turn of the century, while simultaneously reflecting the principals of Greek beauty. The style of dresses at the time is represented within the piece of art that is the dress.

The style of the dress highlights the curves that would of been focused on with the female body at the time. The tightened bodice helps accentuates that feature of the dress. The dress is a vibrant gold color, which is a color that can be rooted to the times and popularity of ancient Greece. The texture of the dress, being silk, is representative of the type of woman who would have been able to wear the dress at the time, as fine silk dresses like the one pictured would have been quite expensive.

I believe that the creation of the dress is a reflection of the time period at hand for multiple reasons. For one, the dress reflects the socialistic values of what was expected of a woman at the time, as they were expected to maintain class and composure at all points of life. The dress also is a representation of what the woman at the time were expected to look like, as they were wanted to have a small waist and small features. It also represents the popular values of revitalizing the culture of Greece, as during that time, England was revamping its society and enjoyed the culture of the gods.