Steel Wool Peignoir, Mimi Smith (born 1942)

In her iconic “Steel Wool Peignoir,” Mimi Smith uses a woman’s vintage lace dressing gown as a subject for feminist critique. By combining the soft materials of lace and nylon with harsh steel wool, she presents a thoroughly uninviting garment to wear, much less to use for seduction. These mismatched materials not only represent an uncomfortable material relationship, but also the repressive social dynamics of female labor and domesticity. For Smith the sculpture signified the realities of marriage in contrast to its illusions, making this work a significant contribution to the feminist art movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.