Periodically, fashion dictates that furniture chintz
is the perfect fabric for a dress.
1960 ???
Netherlands, 17th century
And France in the 18th
Madame Pompadour
Pucci in the 1970s
French 1850s
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Much of this large scale floral fabric is silk and the truly elegant stuff is woven into patterns or embroidered with the pattern.
Dress worn by Queen Victoria in 1855.
Museum of the City of London
But prints have always been an inexpensive copy of woven pattern
Deborah Sampson's dress
Historic New England
Painting from the Index of American Design
Alexandra of Denmark engaged to England's Prince Edward
1860s
France's Empress Eugenie set fashion. She always had the widest skirts.
Eugenie's bodice on a reproduction skirt
Eugenie in 1858
Mary Lincoln liked to think she was the American
Empress
Two portraits of the First Lady from the early 1860s
Oswego, New York
Is that a bird print in the border of this skirt?
Christian Dior
Nice outfit!