A cape dress describes a woman's dress which combines features of the cape and the dress. Either a cape-like garment is attached to the dress, or otherwise integrated into its construction, or the dress and cape are made to co-ordinate in fabric and/or colour. Cape dresses were traditionally worn by (conservative) Mennonite women. Unlike the prayer (head) covering, the cape dress never became part of dress regulations. Besides its historical associations with Mennonite dress, the cape dress has become part of fashion vocabulary.
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The cape dress and Mennonite women
In the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century the cape dress was worn by women from conservative Mennonite communities. The cape dress had a plain style and a piece of fabric covered the bodice. This piece of fabric had a square or V-shape form and de-emphasized the female form. The women of the Holdeman Mennonite community in California wore a cape-dress that had a high neckline, loose bodice and fitted waist. The cape of the dress covered the shoulders and bust. Because of religious reasons, no (or only minor) adornment of the dress was allowed. The plainer the dress, the higher it was valued. For Mennonite community women’s clothing symbolized gender roles. The dress showed women’s ‘submission to God, to men in general and their husband in particular’. Besides that it was a statement of nonconformity to the world, especially against the rapid and dramatically changing fashion from the end of the nineteenth century onwards.
The cape dress as a fashionable garment
The cape dress has occurred in different variations in fashion and film. Greta Garbo wore an Art Deco inspired cape dress in the film The Torrent (1926). The dress has a geometrical black-and-white pattern and a stiff round ruff. The cape dress was also popular in the 1950s. Two types were prominent at the time: a full-skirted, sleeveless dress with a matching, elbow-length cape or a beltless, sheath dress with matching cape.
In the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum various cape dresses can be found. In 1933 Madeleine Vionnet created a woollen jersey dress and matching cape. Coco Chanel designed a dress with matching cape in 1937-8. The dress consisted of silk and net covered with black sequins. It was lined with satin. In 1967 Cristóbal Balenciaga created an evening ensemble consisting of a matching cape and sleeveless dress out of black gazar silk. Philippe Venet created a black-and-white dress with a cape-like collar in 1989.
Recently, the cape dress has occurred in different collections of fashion designers: