Tea gown

Tea gown

A tea gown or tea-gown is a woman's at-home dress of the late 19th to mid-20th centuries characterized by unstructured lines, light fabrics, and frothy or feminine detail.

quotation|Every one knows that a tea-gown is a hybrid between a wrapper and a ball dress. It has always a train and usually long flowing sleeves; is made of rather gorgeous materials and goes on easily, and its chief use is not for wear at the tea-table so much as for dinner alone with one's family.

It can, however, very properly be put on for tea, and if one is dining at home, kept on for dinner. Otherwise a lady is apt to take tea in whatever dress she had on for luncheon, and dress after tea for dinner.

One does not go out to dine in a tea-gown except in the house of a member of one's family or a most intimate friend. One would wear a tea-gown in one's own house in receiving a guest to whose house one would wear a dinner dress." – Emily Post, "Etiquette", 1922.

In contemporary usage, any flowing dress of sheer or translucent fabric, in pastel colors, mid-calf to ankle-length, may be called a tea gown.

External links

* [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/1/14314/14314-h/14314-h.htm Emily Post, "Etiquette", 1922, at Project Gutenberg]
*Surviving tea gowns from "Reforming Fashion, 1850-1914", an exhibit at Ohio State University:
** [http://costume.osu.edu/Reforming_Fashion/image_exhibition/tea54.htm 1876]
** [http://costume.osu.edu/Reforming_Fashion/image_exhibition/tea.htm 1877]
** [http://costume.osu.edu/Reforming_Fashion/image_exhibition/tea59f.htm 1880s]
** [http://costume.osu.edu/Reforming_Fashion/image_exhibition/tea56.htm 1882]


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  • tea-gown — ⇒TEA GOWN, subst. masc. ou fém. Vieilli. Robe d intérieur pour les femmes, faite généralement dans un drapé souple à la fois confortable et élégant. Elle était vêtue d une robe faite pour la chambre une espèce de tea gown de souple soie mauve (P …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • tea gown — tea′ gown n. clo a semiformal dress or gown, usu. of soft, flowing fabric, once popularly worn for afternoon tea or parties • Etymology: 1875–80 …   From formal English to slang

  • Tea-gown — (engl., spr. tī gaun, »Teegewand«), Modebezeichnung für das fashionable Kleid zum »5 Uhr Tee« (s. Five o clock tea) …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • tea-gown — to growing: see tea n. 9 …   Useful english dictionary

  • tea gown — noun a long loose fitting gown formerly popular for wear at afternoon tea • Hypernyms: ↑gown * * * noun : a semiformal gown of fine materials in graceful flowing lines worn especially for afternoon for entertaining at home * * * a semiformal gown …   Useful english dictionary

  • tea-gown — /ˈti gaʊn/ (say tee gown) noun a loose gown formerly worn by women at afternoon tea …  

  • tea gown — noun Date: 1878 a semiformal gown of fine materials in graceful flowing lines worn especially for afternoon entertaining at home …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • tea gown — a semiformal gown of fine material, esp. one styled with soft, flowing lines, worn for afternoon social occasions. [1875 80] * * * …   Universalium

  • tea gown — noun a long, loose dress, typically made of fine fabric and lace trimmed, worn at afternoon tea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries …   English new terms dictionary

  • Gown — A gown (medieval Latin gunna ) is a (usually) loose outer garment from knee to full length worn by men and women in Europe from the early Middle Ages to the seventeenth century (and continuing today in certain professions); later, gown was… …   Wikipedia

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