1966 Dress

Date: ca. 1966 - Material: Silk Dupioni - Accession: 2001.191.1.0252

As with national leaders wives before her, women around the world emulated Jacqueline Kennedy’s personal style. Mrs. Kennedy helped usher in simpler lines, looser styles, and the widespread use of solid colors for daytime dresses. By the early 1960s, dresses developed more structure and tailored lines. This shift dress, worn as the “Mother of the Bride” dress by Jane Maxwell Bardeen at her daughter Elizabeth’s wedding, has a matching coat with large fabric-covered buttons and exudes the simplicity of the era.

Donated to the University of Illinois Bevier Historic Costume Collection by Mrs. John Bardeen. Property transfer to the Illinois State Museum, 2001.