A
tea gown or
tea-gown is a
woman's at-home
dress of
the late 19th to mid-20th centuries
characterized by unstructured lines, light
fabrics, and frothy or feminine detail.
- Every one knows that a tea-gown
is a hybrid between a wrapper and a ball
dress. It has always a train and usually
long flowing sleeves; is made of rather
gorgeous materials and goes on easily,
and its chief use is not for wear at the
tea-table so much as for dinner alone
with one's family.
- It can, however, very properly be
put on for tea, and if one is dining at
home, kept on for dinner. Otherwise a
lady is apt to take tea in whatever
dress she had on for luncheon, and dress
after tea for dinner.
- One does not go out to dine in a
tea-gown except in the house of a member
of one's family or a most intimate
friend. One would wear a tea-gown in
one's own house in receiving a guest to
whose house one would wear a dinner
dress. –
Emily Post, Etiquette, 1922.
In contemporary usage, any flowing dress
of sheer or translucent fabric, in pastel
colors, mid-calf to ankle-length, may be
called a tea gown.