This gown and embroidered stomacher was commissioned by Judith Clark for “The Vulgar” exhibition held at the Barbican, London from Oct 2016 to Feb 2017, and afterwards at the Winter Palace in Vienna (March – June 2017).
The 1720-1750 wrapping gown, constructed in calico, is based on an original garment held in the collection of the Laing Art Gallery and Museum, Newcastle. It is a curatorial intervention to contextualise the wearing of the stomacher by showing the silhouette of garments worn during the early eighteenth century. However, the embroidery technique and design on the stomacher is from a much earlier period and the textile fragments from which it is constructed suggests it is likely to have been constructed from a gauntlet c. 1600. The outline of the embroidery design on the extant stomacher was traced and stitched in split stitch and stem stitch in charcoal coloured silk thread onto a replica stomacher. More details on the stomacher can be found at Manchester Art Gallery.
