Figure 1.--This rust-colored vintage dress has a lace collar and shoulder trim as well as velvet trim. The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney believes it is a boy dress. It is shown worn with lacy pantalettes. Pantallettes or drawers were worn in the 19th century, but often the ones boys wore were often plainer. We are not sure that the two are conncted or just shown togethger. Note that the yellowing (ageing) of the white lace is not seen in the panatalettes. We are not sure how the museum reached this conclusion as there is no provinance provided. Source: Sydney Powerhouse Museum.

This rust-colored vintage dress has a lace collar and shoulder trim as well as velvet trim. The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney believes it is a boy dress. It is shown worn with lacy pantalettes. Pantallettes or drawers were worn in the 19th century, but often the ones boys wore were often plainer. We are not sure that the two are conncted or just shown togethger. Note that the yellowing (ageing) of the white lace is not seen in the panatalettes. We are not sure how the museum reached this conclusion as there is no provinance provided. The dress seems rather short. We do not notice such short dressed in the photographic record, at least in Britain and America. We do notice lacy pantelettes like this, but on dresses with shorter hems. Perhaps styles were different in Australia, but more likely Australians at the time just followed English styles. The Museum is not sure about the date, suggesting the late-19th to early-20th century. We think that the late-19th century is more likely, especially if the pantalettes are associated with the dress. Nor or we sure about the size of thge dress and the agevof the child which woukld have worn this. These vintage garments are useful additions to the HBC archive in part because they provide color infornmation.

Created: 4:30 AM 1/28/2014
Last updated: 4:30 AM 1/28/2014