Dressing gown, ca. 1880. Japanese for Western market.

1. Dressing gown, ca. 1880. Japanese for Western market. Quilted blue silk.
2. Dressing gown, late 1880s. Japanese for Western market. Quilted brown silk.

In the nineteenth century, Japan produced prodigiously for its new Western market. Economic initiative spurred the creation of consumer items exclusively for the export market. At the same time, Japan began a massive consumption of Western goods, chiefly in the sectors of heavy industry and engineering. Quilted dressing gowns like these are for an occasion and of a style that would never have been operative in Japan. For the European customer, the pattern of late-spring flowers, insects, and lotuses evoked exotic origins, mitigated by accommodations to Western style.
-Metropolitan Museum of Art