Purple bodice with lace and matching skirt

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A silk purple bodice with lace and a matching skirt. The bodice (a) is made of dark purple silk satin and has a high band collar. The yoke is made of dark purple high pile velvet with two cut outs on each side of the center front opening. The cut outs are finished with bound seams and are filled with ruched yellow silk satin. A vertical panel of ruched yellow silk satin is stitched to the piped seam edge of the center front opening at the yoke. Purple silk satin is gathered, and machine stitched to the yoke’s bottom edge. The bodice is pleated at the bottom along the center front opening. An additional flap of fabric made of the same silk satin is hand stitched to bottom of the bodice at the proper right. The short, large puff sleeves are elbow length, they are gathered at the shoulder and above the elbow.

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