A tea gown or tea-gown is a woman's at-home dress for informal
entertaining of the late 19th to mid-20th centuries
characterized by unstructured lines and light fabrics. Early tea
gowns were a European development influenced by Asian clothing,
part of the japonism of Aesthetic dress. Later tea gowns
featured 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