Past Programs 2023
Best Bib & Tucker: Dressing for Tea, 1800 to Today
A Talk by Lynne Zacek Bassett
Saturday, November 11, 2023 | 2 pm
Historic Northampton, In-person and live-streamed
Historic Northampton, In-person and live-streamed
Historic Northampton’s costume collection includes a remarkable FIVE tea gowns—a garment developed during the Aesthetic Movement in the latter decades of the 19th century not for wearing out to a tea party, but for “artistic” women to wear in relaxed situations in the home. In a PowerPoint presentation featuring extant garments and period images, fashion historian Lynne Bassett will explain the etiquette of dressing for tea in public and in private, the history of the tea gown, and how social issues of the day—nationalism, social climbing, industrialization, colonial revival nostalgia and women’s rights—affected tea drinkers’ wardrobe options. Historic Northampton’s tea gowns will be on display, dressed on mannequins, for further discussion.
Tea (of course!) and light refreshments will follow. Preservation assessment of the Historic Northampton Clothing Collection is funded by the Northampton Community Preservation Act.
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