V&A
Tan Suede Shirt Dress with Fringe Trim
1970s · 1960s · American
Designer
Bonnie Cashin
Production
ready-to-wear
Material
suede leather
Culture
American
Movement
American Sportswear · Hippie / Counterculture
Influences
Native American fringe decoration · Western frontier clothing
A knee-length shirt dress constructed from tan suede leather with a classic button-front closure and pointed collar. The garment features long sleeves and two patch pockets at hip level. The most distinctive element is the multi-tiered fringe trim that begins at the hip and cascades down in three graduated layers, creating movement and texture. The fringe appears hand-cut and varies in length, with the longest strands reaching the hemline. The overall silhouette is straight and unstructured, reflecting the casual, bohemian aesthetic of late 1960s American fashion. The construction appears machine-sewn with topstitched seams typical of sportswear manufacturing.
dressstraightcollarlessabove-the-knee
Connected To
Influences·Native American fringe decorationTechnique·leather-working
SHARED130 years · cross-category
The romantic buckskin suit's cascading fringe—falling like water from every seam and edge—finds its echo in the '70s suede dress's precise geometric tiers, where Native American decoration has been disciplined into mod minimalism. Both garments speak the same visual language of movement and texture, but where the earlier piece lets fringe flow freely across chest, sleeves, and hem in wild abundance, the later dress corrals it into controlled horizontal bands that swing just so.
Pull the Thread→
Follow this garment wherever the graph leads
