Through sea trade, fine cottons were exported from India to European markets, as in an 1820s white silver-embroidered dress festooned with pleated pink accents. These luxury fabrics were equally prized domestically, such as in a man’s cotton waist sash (patka) at left with gold embroidery and iridescent beetle-wing (elytra) sequins. This tradition of metallic embroidery is echoed in a white McQueen dress with a mid-twentieth-century hourglass silhouette and appliqués of gold-embroidered birds and branches, a look symbolizing the girl emerging from the tree.