dress, 3-piece
date: label: Date made
content: 1990-1996
name: label: maker
content: de la Renta, Oscar
notes: label: Description
content: Black georgette with tiny white polka dots arranged in grid pattern; DRESS has round neckline in front with self-fabric band trim; band continues down edge of center front opening, which extends into skirt placket; hidden closure of thirteen snaps, with hook and eye at waistline; placket trimmed with nineteen small round domed pearl buttons on shanks; shoulder pads at inside shoulders; set-in long sleeves; sleeve bottom gathered into narrow band cuff; sleeve placket and single button closure; two sets of horizontal tucks across bodice, front and back; waistband seam; narrow knife-pleated overskirt, the pleats stitched down to below hip; straight underskirt, with bottom left side slit; bodice and underskirt lined in light brown sheer fabric; dark beige grosgrain band sewn in around inside waistline, with flat hook and eye closure at center front; SCARF is rectangle with hemmed edges; BELT of double faced satin ribbon; cut slanted ends.
label: Description
content: This dress was acquired by the museum both to show the dialogue between designers and customers in the made-to-order fashion industry and also to represent the business dress of a powerful Washington woman executive in the 1970s and 80s. Katharine Graham was President of the Washington Post and the first woman to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company. She began wearing Oscar de la Renta dresses after her favorite designer Halston stopped working in the mid-1980s.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Costume
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Elizabeth Ann Hylton in memory of Katharine Graham
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2004.0018.005
label: accession number
content: 2004.0018
label: catalog number
content: 2004.0018.005
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Dress, 3-Piece
label: Object Type
content: Main Dress
label: Object Type
content: Woman
label: Object Type
content: Dress
label: Object Type
content: Entire Body
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: center back: 42 3/4 in; 108.585 cm
label: Measurements
content: waistline: 31 3/4 in; 80.645 cm
label: Measurements
content: belt width: 24 in; 60.96 cm
label: Measurements
content: belt length: 56 in; 142.24 cm
label: Measurements
content: belt width: 2 3/8 in; 6.0325 cm
label: Measurements
content: belt length: 94 3/4 in; 240.665 cm