Evening bonnet
Unknown Artist
ca. 1880
Medium
Feathers, silk
Classification
Evening bonnet
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 Maud L. Waterman, 1930
Accession Number
2009.300.4193
Art Historical Context
Step into the elegance of 1880s with this exquisite *Evening Bonnet*, a delicate creation from an unknown artist, crafted around 1880 using luxurious feathers and silk. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, this piece exemplifies the opulent headwear worn by fashionable women during the Gilded Age. Bonnets like this were essential for evening attire, transforming the wearer into a vision of refined sophistication at balls, dinners, and social gatherings. The bonnet's materials—vibrant feathers and shimmering silk—highlight the era's fascination with natural splendor an...