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| Cod. 2947 | ||
| Dressing gown with sash. It belonged to Eleonora Duse. Kimono cut with low shoulders, large sleeves reaching the elbows. Black silk hand-embroidered with soft, untwisted silk in several colours, mostly variations on pink, green, many shades of yellow, light blue. The floral decoration is composed by large flowers embroidered on the back, on the bottom of the robe and along the right side on the front, the one that would remain visible after having overlapped the two parts. The dressing gown comes from Eleonora’s theatrical chest that was used to keep object and accessories for the stage and her dressing room. It is thought that the gown was used by the “divina” as a backstage robe. It shows a number of wear and tear traces, the silk is shiny in the areas where it rubbed against the body and some seam lines have been reinforced, although with rather rough stitching, the colours of the silk embroideries are no longer bright and the thread itself looks kind of fraying. The kimono cut of the robe follows the typologies of the of the overgown and loose cut dresses fashionable in the first half of the Twentieth century. Eleonora Duse followed the fashions and the new Liberty style; her dresses, in private life, needed to be practical and essential, beside being elegant, as this robe is. The Japanese inspiration in the cut and in the type of embroidery is also a characteristic Oriental touch typical of the European style of the time. The appreciation of the actress for the Japanese style was already clear in previous years. On February 1885, Gabriele D’Annunzio wrote on the “Tribuna” about the “strange Japanese hairstyle of Mrs Duse”. D. Davanzo Poli, Vestiti nella vita, costumi sulla scena, in Divina Eleonora. Eleonora Duse nella vita e nell’arte, F. Bandini (edited by), Venice, 2001, pp.123-159. | ||
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