%% apa:: Bissonnette, A. (2018). Victorian Tea Gowns: A Case of High Fashion Experimentation. _Dress_, _44_(1), 1–26. [https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2018.1435347](https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2018.1435347) %% # Victorian Tea Gowns: A Case of High Fashion Experimentation --- Bissonnette, A. (2018). Victorian Tea Gowns: A Case of High Fashion Experimentation. _Dress_, _44_(1), 1–26. [https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2018.1435347](https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2018.1435347) --- ## Metadata title: Victorian Tea Gowns: A Case of High Fashion Experimentation author:: Anne Bissonnette cite-key:: bissonnette2018VictorianTeaGowns date_published:: 2018-01-02 url:: [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03612112.2018.1435347](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03612112.2018.1435347) doi:: [10.1080/03612112.2018.1435347](https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2018.1435347) Type: keywords:: [[Victorian era]] ## Abstract This essay observes the historical context in which tea gowns emerged within the world of high fashion in the last forty years of the nineteenth century. Evidence is presented that serves to question the current understanding dress historians and other scholars have of the tea gown as a garment loosely fitted for greater comfort and worn without a corset or other types of underpinnings such as bustles. The study examines elaborate Victorian garments that were meant to be worn at home in museum collections and in mainstream British, American, and French periodicals, and includes gowns worn before and after the “tea gown” name emerged. It proposes a different reading of the tea gown as a type of garment rooted in the fashion establishment rather than a garment conceived or essentially used to serve an anti-fashion or dress-reform agenda. --- ## Notes