Robe à la Française, French, 1760s, cotton. Length at CB (a): 58 in. (147.3 cm). Length at CB (b): 36 1/2 in. (92.7 cm). Purchase, Irene Lewisohn Bequest, 1964. C.I.64.32.3a, b. The Metropolitan Museum of Art © 2000–2016 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

An exotic floral pattern alludes to Jean-Baptiste Pillement's chinoiserie designs. The French fabric interprets an Indian export fabric that itself was a copy of what was considered a Chinese pattern. Thus characteristic of the "exotic" sources, Orientalism is never a narrow-gauge or scholastic enterprise in fashion. Rather, it is a fantasy, often a composite and customarily synthesized.