Cravat
Unknown Artist
ca. 1850
Medium
Silk
Classification
Cravat
Culture
American
Department
Costume Institute
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Nathalie Swift, 1969
Accession Number
2009.300.7704
Art Historical Context
Step into the elegant world of 19th-century American fashion with this exquisite silk cravat, crafted around 1850 by an unknown. As a staple of men's formal attire, the cravat from European traditions into a symbol of refined masculinity in the United States, often tied in intricate knots to showcase personal style. This piece, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute,ails from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection, gifted in 2009 after an initial 1969 donation by Nathalie Swift. Made of luxurious silk, the cravat highlights the era's embrace of fine textiles, which were ...