Gown (fourreau) c. 1910

This dress, a gown in fact, a ‘fourreau’, came into being stitch by stitch in the hands of an unknown maker. What I see is a really beautiful, quite formal sort of object, with all these embroidered flowers on a pale fabric. When I look at it I can imagine the person who made this really trying to find beauty and to make something beautiful, I really appreciate that. I imagine the hours spent on it. All this work, all this labour done by hand, I love that there’s no signature. The lace feels almost like a memory, like drips, like a beautiful ruin, like something that happened a long time ago, or something that has been worn away. I look at that colour, it's a beautiful light purple, it has the same kind of feeling as certain kinds of light. Like when the sun goes down and the sky turns violet. It is an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time.