Cleveland Museum of Art

Woman's Bridal Dress: Dragon Jacket, Pleated Skirt, Tabard

Date: 1800s
Medium: Silk, gilt-metal thread; embroidery
Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Department: Textiles
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 163632

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

This three-piece bridal dress includes a dragon jacket, a pleated skirt, and a tabard, a short loose-fitting sleeveless vest. The ensemble reveals the high rank of her husband even though it did not fall under the scope of the Qing Dynasty sumptuary laws. The woman's bridal trousseau contains a short red coat with side-fastening and wide sleeves. It is decorated with ten dragons and other cosmological motifs commonly found on court dress. The presence of ten dragons indicates that the wife's husband was a high-ranking official. The dragon jacket was worn over a pleated turquoise skirt, with six embroidered panels which feature dragons in the front and back. A three-quarter-length sleeveless tabard completes the outfit, with a front closure, open sides secured by cloth bands, and a colorful tasseled fringe around the hem. Dragons, water, and clouds are embroidered on the silk ground. In addition, a rank badge applied on the front and back shows that the bride married a man of high official rank.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Gift of Elizabeth Wade Sedgwick
Provenance: ?–2005: Elizabeth Wade Sedgwick [1913–2013], Lexington, MA, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 2005–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Part of a LinkedCulture topic

Asian Embroidered Women's Garments
These objects are traditional women's garments, primarily skirts and jackets from Qing Dynasty China, featuring elaborate silk embroidery and representative of East Asian textile arts.
37 objects from 3 institutions