“Is there a vast difference between a Callot dress and one from any other shop?” asked Proust’s fictional alter-ego, Marcel. “Why, an enormous difference,” replied his girlfriend, Albertine. “Only, alas! What you get for 300 francs in an ordinary shop will cost you two thousand there. But there can be no comparison; they look the same only to people who know nothing about it.”

The Callot Sisters – Marie, Marthe, Régina, and Joséphine – were among the greatest couturiers of the early 20th century. Their couture house opened in 1895 and by the early 20th century, it was one of the most respected establishments in Paris. Although almost forgotten today, their most illustrious protégé, Madeleine Vionnet, regarded them outstanding dressmakers, stating, “Without the example of the Callot Soeurs, I would have continued to make Fords. It is because of them that I have been able to make Rolls Royces.”

This dress' donor, Pauline Kohlsaat, was a native Chicagoan, the daughter of a leader in Illinois Republican politics. She married a member of one of Chicago’s leading families, Potter Palmer II, director of the First National Bank of Chicago and President of the Art Institute of Chicago. When he died in 1943, he left Pauline an estimated 4.5 million dollars.

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