by textile designers in Europe providing for local consumption in the style now known as chinoiserie.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has drawn on its large and important collection of textiles and costumes for a small exhibition entitled The Bizarre and the Beautiful: Silks of the Eighteenth Century. It examines the development in Europe of what are known as bizarre silks, which are defined by their juxtaposition of various patterns and the use of fantastical imagery. The show, which is on view until the spring of 2007, comprises fifteen examples of these silks, a few of which were fashioned into dresses worn by stylish women in Philadelphia.
