Woman's Day Dress

Indian cotton weavers have been creating delicate, sheer textiles for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Elite men and women on the Indian subcontinent valued such fine, cotton muslin—a specialty of Bengal that was made entirely by hand—for fashionable clothing.

White cotton dresses first appeared in French fashion in the 1780s; the simplicity of the delicate column-like silhouette was seen as an ideal expression of Neoclassical femininity, a look inspired by Classical Greek and Roman statuary. The quality of this cotton was nearly impossible to replicate using European industrial methods, adding to its cachet.