Nineteenth-century natural history collections such as cabinets of curiosity or museum displays, showcasing beetles, butterflies, and other exotic insects and animals collected from around the world captivated the nineteenth-century viewer with their exotic colors. The allure of exotic insects translated to fashion, where textiles and accessories incorporated actual beetle wings. These iridescent wings were often embroidered onto garments and accessories and would blur the lines of fantasy and reality transforming the wearer into a mobile cabinet of curiosity, displaying familial material wealth and government success in colonial exploration. Here, I examine four gowns constructed during the nineteenth century to argue that the thick exoskeleton with elytra and structural color of beetles made them desirable as collection specimens and are the same features that made them desirable as fashion adornments and accessories. Because of the physical properties of beetles, the wearer of the beetle, the viewer of the beetle, and the collector of the beetle all had the same shared experience when viewing the beetle as an object of wealth.