Watercolor costume sketch by Lemuel Ayers for the musical, St. Louis Woman

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 watercolor sketch by Lemuel Ayers of a costume for the musical "St. Louis Woman", as performed in 1946. This costume is for an unidentified character. At the center of the sheet of paper is a light sketch in pencil painted over in watercolor of a woman wearing a patterned blue dress with purple and yellow detailing, a full length skirt, a high, ruffled collar with a brooch at the neck, and a black belt at the waist, sleeves in a leg of mutton style (very full at the shoulder and narrow from elbow to wrist), with an off-center row of buttons running down the proper right side of the bodice and continuing on the proper left side of the skirt. The bodice also has a decoration of flower rosettes running down the left side. The woman is wearing a hat with a black brim decorated with flowers that match the rosettes on the bodice.

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