Clothing & Accessories

Women's Gown (cheong sam) ca. 1930

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.

Resource Type: Main garments

Jonathan Sheldon's Freedom Suit

This cotton nankeen suit was given to Jonathan Sheldon in 1775 upon the completion of his apprenticeship to a member of the Townsend family of cabinet makers in Newport, Rhode Island.
Description
This cotton nankeen suit was given to Jonathan Sheldon in 1775 upon the completion of his apprenticeship to a member of the Townsend family of cabinet makers in Newport, Rhode Island. The promise of a “Freedom Suit” at the end of an apprenticeship was part of a standard contract between pupil and master in the 18th century, and would have been the young man or woman’s best clothing as he or she set out into the world. While a simple suit like this would have been very common at the time, this is the only one of its kind that is known to have survived.
Family tradition states that the cabinet maker’s wife made Sheldon’s suit using apple wood button forms that were made in the shop. However, the garment construction is consistent with contemporary tailoring techniques, so it is possible that the outfit was professionally cut and sewn, using buttons that were supplied by the customer.
The suit consists of a sleeved waistcoat or jacket and a pair of breeches made of yellow-tan cotton nankeen, a naturally yellow cotton fabric that was imported from China but, by this date, was also being imitated in Manchester, England. Nankeen was a modestly fashionable fabric. While no one would have considered Sheldon’s Freedom Suit fashionable, it does feature a faux frock collar—a flat, applied strip sewn on around the neck to masquerade as a stylish soft, turned collar. Unlike a more stylish coat with a longer skirt, Sheldon’s jacket doubled as coat and waistcoat and would have been worn closed. But like a coat, the tails of the jacket are pleated around a center back vent, with one button at each side back, above the pleats.
The jacket also has curved center front edges, narrow cuffs, and one double-scalloped pocket flap at each front, over curved pocket slits. Nine 1" buttons at right front correspond to buttonholes on the left front, with the lowest buttonhole uncut. The fronts are lined with linen to the edge. The back is unlined. The breeches have a short, medium-width 2-button fall shaped in a shallow V along upper edge. The wide waistband fastens at the front with three 1" buttons, and has two pairs of eyelets flanking a vent at center back. One pocket at each side front is covered by a flap that fastens at side seam with one button. There is a five-button closing at each knee. The breeches are fully lined with linen. All buttons other than those at center front waist are 5/8" diameter.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1775
associated person
Townsend, John
Sheldon, Jonathan
maker
unknown
ID Number
2012.0194.001
catalog number
236205.001
accession number
2012.0194

Quinceanera dress

Natalia Flores wore this pink silver-embroidered evening gown for her Quinceanera held in Chicago in 2006. Quinceaneras are a Latina religious tradition that celebrate the maturing of a girl into a woman.
Description
Natalia Flores wore this pink silver-embroidered evening gown for her Quinceanera held in Chicago in 2006. Quinceaneras are a Latina religious tradition that celebrate the maturing of a girl into a woman. Traditionally, the celebration takes place on the girl's fifteenth birthday, is religious in nature, and involves her dressing in a formal gown.
American immigrants have strived to preserve their cultural identities through performing these traditions. Although Natalia's mother did not have a Quinceanera in Mexico, she thought it was important for her daughter to experience this custom in America.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2006
distributor
P.C. Mary's Inc.
wearer
Flores, Natalia
maker
unknown
ID Number
2009.0169.001
accession number
2009.0169
catalog number
2009.0169.001

Levi's Brown Duck Trousers

Levi's Brown Duck Trousers1873-1896The brown cotton trousers shown here were made by Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco, California sometime during the two decades after the company's founding in 1873.
Description
Levi's Brown Duck Trousers
1873-1896
The brown cotton trousers shown here were made by Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco, California sometime during the two decades after the company's founding in 1873. Levi Strauss was a 24-year old, newly minted American citizen from Bavaria when he set sail for San Francisco in 1853 to open a branch of his brother's New York City dry-goods business. He prospered by supplying blankets, handkerchiefs, and clothing to merchants in the West for the next two decades. In 1872, he received a business proposition from Jacob Davis, a Latvian-born tailor in Reno, Nevada. Davis had invented a way to strengthen trousers by reinforcing their pocket openings with copper rivets in order to help a customer who complained about his constantly torn pockets. He asked Levi Strauss to join him in patenting the process; then they would go into business together to sell their patented riveted pants.
Patent number 139,121 was granted on 20 May 1873, and production began immediately. The printed leather label at the center back waistband of these "waist overalls," as they were known in the late nineteenth century, suggests that the product was instantly popular with hard-working men who needed indestructible trousers. The label proclaims "Levi Strauss & Co." of "14 & 16 Battery Street SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. " to be the "Sole Proprietors and Manufacturers" of "PATENT RIVETED DUCK & DENIM CLOTHING. . . EVERY PAIR GUARANTEED. None Genuine Unless Bearing This Label. Any infringement on this Patent will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. LABEL COPYRIGHTED."
The company's patent expired in 1890, but the popularity of their riveted trousers became an American legend. Iron-clad cotton "duck" canvas (mentioned on the label, and seen in this pair of pants) was gradually phased out in favor of flexible cotton denim, a fabric that was much like the twilled cotton "jean" that had long been used for men's work clothes. By 1960, Levi's had come to be called "jeans" in both corporate advertising and the public's imagination.
Made of a heavy cotton canvas known as "duck," the pants feature a pair of short tapered belts with a buckle to cinch the back waist yoke, and white top-stitching everywhere except along the outside leg seams below the two front pockets. A small watch pocket is set inside the right front pocket, and a single back patch pocket with Levi's now-famous double arcuate stitching is placed on the right hip. A printed leather label is centered on the back waistband.
The patented copper rivets that reinforced the upper corners of each pocket and the base of the fly set these trousers apart from all other work clothing of their day. Each rivet is inscribed "L. S. & CO. S. F. PAT. MAY 1873." The pants were fastened and supported by four-hole metal buttons; the two buttons hidden in the concealed fly are unmarked, but the rims of the one at the front waist, and the six suspender buttons around the waistband, are marked "LEVI STRAUSS & CO. S. F. CAL."
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1873 - 1896
maker
Levi Strauss and Company
ID Number
CS.256979.002
catalog number
256979.002
accession number
256979

dress, 1-piece

This dress was worn by Mrs. George Meem to a White House function in Washington, D.C. in the early 1920s. It could have been either the Warren Harding or Calvin Coolidge administrations. Her husband was a local banker, and they were probably active in Washington society.
Description
This dress was worn by Mrs. George Meem to a White House function in Washington, D.C. in the early 1920s. It could have been either the Warren Harding or Calvin Coolidge administrations. Her husband was a local banker, and they were probably active in Washington society. As indicated by the label in the dress, she purchased the dress at Julius Garfinckel and Company, called “Garfinckel’s” by local residents.
The dress was worn with a pair of gold leather sandals which are also in the costume collections at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution.
This sleeveless evening dress is constructed from red creped georgette with a woven gold metallic geometric pattern. It has a round neck that is lower in the front than at the back. The edges of the neck and armholes are faced with light red georgette. The back of the dress has a hanging panel that extends from the neck to the waist and is gathered at the neck edge. The waist seam is dropped below the normal waistline, and there is a separate inset band around the hip area that is asymmetrical at the lower edge, curving up at the right side. The upper skirt section, with four rows of shirring, is attached to the bottom of inset band. The skirt section overlaps at the right side so that the panel hangs free. The lower portion of the skirt is constructed of metallic lace. Two rosettes of self-fabric and a hanging panel of gold metallic lace are attached at the right hip. An off-white georgette slip is sewn to the dress at the shoulders and the waistband seam and extends to the bottom of the georgette portion of the skirt section.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1920 - 1924
1920-1924
maker
Garfinckel's
Julius Garfinckel and Company
ID Number
CS.046855
catalog number
046855
accession number
182611

Wedding Dress made from World War II Silk Parachute

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
November 15, 1945
date made
November 1945
user
Bourland, Rosalie H.
maker
Hierholzer, Lora
Hierholzer, Lora
ID Number
2004.0207.001
accession number
2004.0207
catalog number
2004.0207.001

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