This Week

Today, every chic woman has a little black dress. But, until Coco Chanel helped to revolutionize fashion, in the Jazz Age, a lady in black was often in mourning. The etiquette of bereavement was intricate. Take the silk gown pictured here, made in America around 1848: its chalk-white stripes elongated the figure, but they also signalled that the widow wearing the dress was past the darkest stage of her grief. It’s one of the garments, made between 1815 and 1915, in the exhibition “Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire,” at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute. In addition to clothing (one highlight is a frock worn by Queen Victoria), the show features photographs, illustrations, and accessories, from weeping veils to brooches made from the hair of the dearly departed.