Electric Light dress

The Electric Light dress was a masquerade gown made of gold and silver thread that was designed by Charles Frederick Worth for Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt.

[1] The dress was made of yellow satin, decorated with glass pearls and beads in a lightning-bolt pattern.

A built-in battery lit a light bulb she carried, which she could raise over her head like the Statue of Liberty.

[2][3] This dress was one of several spectacular gowns that served to make the event the official start of Alva Vanderbilt's role as a leading socialite in New York.

[4] The dress is preserved at the Museum of the City of New York,[5] having been donated in 1951 by Vanderbilt's youngest daughter Gladys, Countess Laszlo Szechenyi.