Clothing & Accessories

Work, play, fashion, economic class, religious faith, even politics—all these aspects of American life and more are woven into clothing. The Museum cares for one of the nation's foremost collections of men's, women's, and children's garments and accessories—from wedding gowns and military uniforms to Halloween costumes and bathing suits.

The collections include work uniforms, academic gowns, clothing of presidents and first ladies, T-shirts bearing protest slogans, and a clean-room "bunny suit" from a manufacturer of computer microchips. Beyond garments, the collections encompass jewelry, handbags, hair dryers, dress forms, hatboxes, suitcases, salesmen's samples, and thousands of fashion prints, photographs, and original illustrations. The more than 30,000 artifacts here represent the changing appearance of Americans from the 1700s to the present day.

A jewelry box made of orange celluloid with a pearlescent finish. The Art Deco style box has a hinged lid which is decorated with a tulip motif. The bottom of the box is lined with felt. It has the Amerith trademark. Amerith was a tradename of the Celluloid Corporation.
Description
A jewelry box made of orange celluloid with a pearlescent finish. The Art Deco style box has a hinged lid which is decorated with a tulip motif. The bottom of the box is lined with felt. It has the Amerith trademark. Amerith was a tradename of the Celluloid Corporation. It is also marked with the pattern name, Brinkley, which was introduced in 1929.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1929
maker
Celluloid Manufacturing Company
ID Number
2006.0098.1675
catalog number
2006.0098.1675
accession number
2006.0098
This exotic Eastern-influenced dress was designed by Callot Soeurs, a popular Parisian fashion house.The dress was worn by Mrs.
Description
This exotic Eastern-influenced dress was designed by Callot Soeurs, a popular Parisian fashion house.
The dress was worn by Mrs. Florence Sheffield Keep, a prominent Washingtonian whose busy social schedule and contacts within the diplomatic community were often noted in the Washington, DC and New York City newspapers. It is possible that this dress was worn to a diplomatic event in Washington, DC.
Callot Soeurs opened in 1895 at 24, rue Taibout in Paris, France. It was founded and operated by four sisters: Marie Callot Gerber, Marthe Callot Bertrand, Regina Callot Tennyson-Chantrell, and Josephine Callot Crimont with Marie being the head designer. Coming from an artistic family, their mother was a lace maker and their father a painter and teacher of design. Before opening the salon, the sisters first worked with antique laces and ribbons to adorn blouses and lingerie. They later expanded into other clothing to include daywear, tailored suits, and evening dresses being best known for their eighteenth century inspired dishabille and their exotic evening dress influenced by the East. In 1914, the design house moved to grander quarters at 9-11, avenue Matignon, and they became involved in Le syndicat de defense de la grande couture francaise. Through this organization Callot Soeurs along with designers Paul Poiret, Jacques Worth, Jeanne Paquin, Madeleine Cheruit, Paul Rodier, and Bianchini and Ferier, put in place controls to protect their original designs from copy houses that sold them to ready-to-wear manufacturers without their permission. This is the time when the Callot Soeurs began to date their labels.
As evident with the design of this dress of bright orange color, gold lace, and elaborate trim, in the 1920’s, Callot Soeurs used brilliant and rich fauvist colors and Eastern inspired designs with exotic details in their formal evening wear. Along with other designers such as Paul Poiret, they were strongly influenced by the wave of orientalism in fashion and the arts. It was during this period that Callot Soeurs became one of the leading fashion houses in Paris, serving exclusive clientele from Europe and the United States. In 1928, Pierre Gerber, Marie Callot Gerber’s son took over the business and moved it to 41, avenue Montaigne. It remained there until Marie retired in 1937. It was at this time that the House of Callot Soeurs closed and was absorbed into the House of Calvert.
This dress is constructed of bright orange silk chiffon with a lining of off-white satin. Gold metallic lace trim and elaborate decorative motifs of beading and iridescent sequins decorate entire dress. The bodice section forms a deep V at front and back with the under bodice lining covered with net forming an insert at center front. Bands of lace and decorated chiffon form diagonal straps at front with at a criss-cross pattern at back. A large decorative diamond-shape emblem of pearls, green and blue beads, and glass stones at corners and center are attached at lower edge of bodice front insert. Five pearl tassels extend from lower edge of the emblem. Horizontal bands of two-inch wide gold metallic lace centered with a band of beaded orange chiffon are set in at the mid-section of the dress. Long tails of chiffon decorated all over with beading and sequins are shirred at the shoulders forming a flowing sleeve-like appearance. The decorated orange chiffon skirt section has an inverted V insert of two-inch gold metallic lace at front which extends into a horizontal band at back. A scalloped pattern at the lower edge has an insert of gold metallic lace. A label woven into a waistband at inside lining reads: “Hiver 1922-1923, Callot Soeurs, Paris, Nouvelle Marque Deposee”.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1922-1923
used by
Keep, Florence Sheffield Boardman
maker
Callot Soeurs
Callot Soeurs
ID Number
CS.057028
catalog number
57028
accession number
202244
"The Green Calash" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by Ellen Day Hale (1855–1940), produced in 1925 after her 1904 painting. The print is a three-quarter-view portrait of a young woman seated with her hands resting together in her lap.
Description
"The Green Calash" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by Ellen Day Hale (1855–1940), produced in 1925 after her 1904 painting. The print is a three-quarter-view portrait of a young woman seated with her hands resting together in her lap. She is wearing a large green bonnet or hood called a calash because of its resemblance to the folding top of an 18th-century carriage known as a calash.
"The Green Calash" was shown at the Smithsonian as part of a print exhibition in November 1936. Other exhibitors were Gabrielle DeVeaux Clements, Margaret Hoyt, and Lesley Jackson. Clements and Hale experimented extensively with color printmaking throughout their careers. They were especially inspired by French artist René Ligeron's 1924 treatise on color intaglio, which Hale translated into English for the Smithsonian exhibition. Clements wrote to curator R.P. Tolman that she and Hale had "been working on an interesting line of experiments in printing etchings in color" and that they had "lately gained better control of the medium, and greater simplicity."
The 1936 exhibition came near the end of Hale's and Clements's careers. By that time they had been producing prints for more than sixty years. Their work was included in the first exhibition of etchings exclusively by women at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1887. Curator Sylvester R. Koehler included more than 400 etchings by twenty-five artists in a very successful exhibition titled Women Etchers of America. In 1888 the Union League Club in New York exhibited the same works, plus about 100 more by eleven additional women. A traveling exhibition celebrating the centennial of these two ground-breaking shows, American Women of the Etching Revival, was organized by the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia in 1988. The NMAH lent works by Hale, Clements, and other women printmakers, and the Museum showed the exhibition in Washington in 1989.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1925
ID Number
GA.17165
catalog number
17165
accession number
142035
A small mirror with a handle made of a velvet ribbon. Attached to the end of the ribbon is a tiny celluloid Kewpie doll. The mirror is made of ivory-grained celluloid and embossed with a floral design.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
A small mirror with a handle made of a velvet ribbon. Attached to the end of the ribbon is a tiny celluloid Kewpie doll. The mirror is made of ivory-grained celluloid and embossed with a floral design.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1885-1920
ID Number
2006.0098.1145
accession number
2006.0098
catalog number
2006.0098.1145
A purse-size makeup box made of light brown ivory-grain celluloid. It has a mirror on the back. The box is for eye makeup and is so marked. An image of a flapper holding a folding fan with the word "Poirier" decorates the lid.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
A purse-size makeup box made of light brown ivory-grain celluloid. It has a mirror on the back. The box is for eye makeup and is so marked. An image of a flapper holding a folding fan with the word "Poirier" decorates the lid.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1920-1929
ID Number
2006.0098.1685
catalog number
2006.0098.1685
accession number
2006.0098
A round pocket mirror made of celluloid. A photograph of a man in a fedora is on the front.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
A round pocket mirror made of celluloid. A photograph of a man in a fedora is on the front.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920
ID Number
2006.0098.1126
accession number
2006.0098
catalog number
2006.0098.1126
A jewelry box, made of ivory-grained celluloid, in the shape of a dresser. There are four drawers and a mirror. The drawers are lined with pink velvet. The box is unmarked.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
A jewelry box, made of ivory-grained celluloid, in the shape of a dresser. There are four drawers and a mirror. The drawers are lined with pink velvet. The box is unmarked.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890-1929
ID Number
2006.0098.1689
catalog number
2006.0098.1689
accession number
2006.0098
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1850 - 1925
ID Number
DL.252318.0087
catalog number
252318.0087
accession number
252318
A powder box made of orange celluloid with a pearlescent finish. The Art Deco style box has a lift-off lid that is decorated with a tulip motif. The box has the Amerith trademark. Amerith was a tradename of the Celluloid Corporation.
Description (Brief)
A powder box made of orange celluloid with a pearlescent finish. The Art Deco style box has a lift-off lid that is decorated with a tulip motif. The box has the Amerith trademark. Amerith was a tradename of the Celluloid Corporation. It is also marked with the pattern name, Brinkley, which was introduced in 1929.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1929
maker
Celluloid Manufacturing Company
ID Number
2006.0098.1674
catalog number
2006.0098.1674
accession number
2006.0098
A compact made of imitation tortoiseshell celluloid. The mirror is set into the outside of the lid. The compact is empty and appears to have been unused. It is unmarked.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
A compact made of imitation tortoiseshell celluloid. The mirror is set into the outside of the lid. The compact is empty and appears to have been unused. It is unmarked.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1900-1929
ID Number
2006.0098.1688
catalog number
2006.0098.1688
accession number
2006.0098
A glove stretcher made of cream and orange celluloid. It is unmarked.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
A glove stretcher made of cream and orange celluloid. It is unmarked.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920
ID Number
2006.0098.1571
catalog number
2006.0098.1571
accession number
2006.0098
A compact made of ivory-grained celluloid with a decorative disk glued to the lid. The disk is also plastic (perhaps celluloid) and is made to look like mother-of-pearl. The compact contains a powder puff and powder residue. It is unmarked.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
A compact made of ivory-grained celluloid with a decorative disk glued to the lid. The disk is also plastic (perhaps celluloid) and is made to look like mother-of-pearl. The compact contains a powder puff and powder residue. It is unmarked.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890-1929
ID Number
2006.0098.1687
catalog number
2006.0098.1687
accession number
2006.0098
The traditional American leather firefighter’s helmet with its distinctive long rear brim, frontpiece, and crest adornment was first developed around 1821-1836 in New York City. Henry T.
Description
The traditional American leather firefighter’s helmet with its distinctive long rear brim, frontpiece, and crest adornment was first developed around 1821-1836 in New York City. Henry T. Gratacap, a New York City luggage maker by trade, is often credited as the developer of this style of fire helmet. Gratacap created a specially treated leather helmet with a segmented “comb” design that led to unparalleled durability and strength. The elongated rear brim (also known as a duckbill or beavertail) and frontpiece were 19th century innovations that remain the most identifiable feature of firefighter’s helmets. The body of the helmet was primarily designed to deflect falling debris, the rear brim prevented water from running down firefighters’ backs, and their sturdy crowns could aid, if necessary, in breaking windows.
This leather fire helmet was made by Cairns & Brother of New York, New York, during the first half of the 20th century. The helmet has eight combs and is painted red overall, with an ivy-vine scroll pattern stamped around the brim. A metal frontpiece holder extends from the crown with a white leather frontpiece that reads “16/OFS.” The frontpiece has been reused, and the number "11" can be seen in faded stitching at the center.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1920
maker
Cairns & Brother
ID Number
2005.0233.0220
accession number
2005.0233
catalog number
2005.0233.0220
A novelty folding comb. It is cream celluloid and laminated with a pink pearlescent celluloid sheet. The pearlescent sheet is decorated with rhinestones and an Art Deco motif. It is unmarked.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
A novelty folding comb. It is cream celluloid and laminated with a pink pearlescent celluloid sheet. The pearlescent sheet is decorated with rhinestones and an Art Deco motif. It is unmarked.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1925
ID Number
2006.0098.1717
accession number
2006.0098
catalog number
2006.0098.1717
A poster sponsored by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.Currently not on view
Description
A poster sponsored by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
Location
Currently not on view
associated date
1920
1900
1970
maker
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
ID Number
1986.0710.0007
accession number
1986.0710
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1910 - 1920
ID Number
1986.0310.4
accession number
1986.0310
catalog number
1986.310.4
This bride's cap was worn by Mary Eloise Tasher when she married William T. Moore on June 1, 1929 in South Bend, Indiana. It is constructed of white lace decorated with pearls and wax orange blossoms.
Description
This bride's cap was worn by Mary Eloise Tasher when she married William T. Moore on June 1, 1929 in South Bend, Indiana. It is constructed of white lace decorated with pearls and wax orange blossoms. The wax orange blossoms on the cap are a symbol of fertility since no tree is more prolific, bearing fruit and blooming at the same time. The blossom which is white is also a symbol of innocence and chastity. The use of orange blossoms became popular in the early nineteenth century and continued well into the 1950s. When real orange blossoms were not available or were in short supply, wax replicas, as on this bride's cap, were used instead.
The cap was worn with a white satin dress, with a tiered skirt edged with net, and white satin shoes as well as a brassiere and panties that are all part of the Smithsonian collections. The pink georgette mother of the bride dress, worn by Mrs. Charles A. Tasher, and the yellow crepe de chine and green silk taffeta bridesmaid dress, worn by Lucy Lucile Tasher, sister of the bride, are also in the collections.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1929
used by
Tasher, Mary Eloise
ID Number
CS.058341
catalog number
058341
accession number
205719
This wedding veil was designed and made for Princess Stéphanie of Belgium for her wedding to Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria in 1881.
Description
This wedding veil was designed and made for Princess Stéphanie of Belgium for her wedding to Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria in 1881. The Hapsburg-Lothringen shield dominates the center back of the veil, while the coat-of-arms of Belgium is in the center of the garland of 21 coats-of-arms along the border with Belgian province shields on one side and the Austro-Hungarian on the other. The name "Leon Sacré" and "Bruxelles 1880" are worked in needlepoint by the central border motif of the Belgian Lion. The veil is made in fine Brussels Point de Gaze needle lace embellished with elaborate ferns, lilies, roses and other flowers on a gossamer fine handmade ground powdered with tiny dots. Queen Henriette commissioned Leon Sacré to design the veil for her daughter to be made by the best lace makers in Belgium. It was a wedding gift from the city of Brussels
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1880
used date
1881-05-10
1927-01-27
associated date
1964-06-18
ID Number
TE.T13491
catalog number
T13491
accession number
254382
This cap lappet is part of a set of Point de Venise de Reseau needle lace. The ground has been restored and the fine quality needlepoint motifs are now applied on machine made net.
Description
This cap lappet is part of a set of Point de Venise de Reseau needle lace. The ground has been restored and the fine quality needlepoint motifs are now applied on machine made net. The lace dates originally from the early 18th century, and was remodelled in the late 19th to early 20th century. It matches the border TE.L7694 and cap back TE.L7695.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1700-1710
date repaired
1875-1925
maker
unknown
ID Number
TE.L7693
catalog number
L7693
accession number
58000
This delicate scarf with dense floral motifs is made with Brussels needlepoint and bobbin lace. Large medallions of delicate point de Gaze needle lace with floral motifs embellish both ends. It is from the late 19th or early 20th century and made of cotton.Currently not on view
Description
This delicate scarf with dense floral motifs is made with Brussels needlepoint and bobbin lace. Large medallions of delicate point de Gaze needle lace with floral motifs embellish both ends. It is from the late 19th or early 20th century and made of cotton.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1875-1925
maker
unknown
ID Number
TE.T13865
catalog number
T13865
accession number
266231
This cap crown is of Point de Venise de Reseau needle lace. The ground has been restored and the fine quality needlepoint motifs are now applied on machine made net. The lace dates originally from the early 18th century, and was remodelled in the late 19th to early 20th century.
Description
This cap crown is of Point de Venise de Reseau needle lace. The ground has been restored and the fine quality needlepoint motifs are now applied on machine made net. The lace dates originally from the early 18th century, and was remodelled in the late 19th to early 20th century. It compliments a matching lappet TE.L7693 and and border TE.L7694.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1700-1710
date repaired
1875-1925
maker
unknown
ID Number
TE.L7695
catalog number
L7695
accession number
58000
One of the Lee daughters wore this casual Chinese-style outfit on special occasions, for none of the children wore Chinese dress for every day wear.
Description (Brief)
One of the Lee daughters wore this casual Chinese-style outfit on special occasions, for none of the children wore Chinese dress for every day wear. The trouser band or fu tau , translated as the “head of the trousers,” was folded over and secured with a belt or cord and covered by the vest.
Lee B. Lok, his wife Ng Shee, and their seven children lived above the Quong Yuen Shing & Co. store in New York City's Chinatown. Though the children wore Western clothes and participated in the local Scout troop and other clubs, their parents required them to attend Chinese school each day, from 4-7 PM.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920
maker
unknown
ID Number
1992.0620.11
catalog number
1992.0620.11
accession number
1992.0620
One of the Lee daughters wore this casual Chinese-style outfit on special occasions, for none of the children wore Chinese dress for every day wear.
Description (Brief)
One of the Lee daughters wore this casual Chinese-style outfit on special occasions, for none of the children wore Chinese dress for every day wear. The trouser band or fu tau , translated as the “head of the trousers,” was folded over and secured with a belt or cord and covered by the vest.
Lee B. Lok, his wife Ng Shee, and their seven children lived above the Quong Yuen Shing & Co. store in New York City's Chinatown. Though the children wore Western clothes and participated in the local Scout troop and other clubs, their parents required them to attend Chinese school each day, from 4-7 PM.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920
maker
unknown
ID Number
1992.0620.10
catalog number
1992.0620.10
accession number
1992.0620
Pin made of celluloid in the shape of an airplane. The body of the plane is cream-colored, with black wings and propeller. The pin bar is metal. Gold foil is on the wheels.
Description (Brief)
Pin made of celluloid in the shape of an airplane. The body of the plane is cream-colored, with black wings and propeller. The pin bar is metal. Gold foil is on the wheels. The pin is a souvenir commemorating Charles Lindbergh's nonstop flight across the Atlantic in 1927.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1927
referenced
Lindbergh, Charles A.
ID Number
2006.0098.1548
catalog number
2006.0098.1548
accession number
2006.0098

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