Two hundred years ago, women were just as concerned with their
appearance as they are today. In a new display opening at Bath and
North East Somerset Council’s Fashion Museum on 16 February 2008 a
selection of some of the oldest dresses in the museum collection
will show that this has always been the case.
The display entitled Dresses from
History includes 13 women’s dresses and ensembles
from the Georgian, Regency and Victorian period. All of the pieces
to be displayed have been carefully chosen for their decorative
qualities and because they were the height of fashion at the
time.
“This is a great opportunity to showcase to our visitors some of
the historic gems in the Museum collection”, commented Rosemary
Harden, Fashion Museum Manager at the Council, “The collection here
in Bath does include some of the most beautiful and fashionable
historic dresses in any museum collection in the world, and we have
been working for some months now to get the dresses in order so
that we can display them in the galleries. This is a specialist
job, and it has been fun working with experienced textile
conservators so that we can present the dresses as far as possible,
as they would have been seen in Georgian, Regency and Victorian
times. We hope thus to give our visitors a real glimpse of
history”.
One of the oldest, and most ornate, pieces in the new display is
a glittering Court dress of French brocaded silk with gold coloured
metal thread and chenille woven in a floral pattern. The dress
dates from about 1760, and was probably worn at courts during the
early years of King George III’s reign. A Court was a formal
occasion at which the richest members of society paid their
respects to the monarch, for example on the King or Queen’s
birthday. The most splendid clothes were expected at these
functions. The point was to show how important and wealthy you
were; and a dress with wide hoops made of rich looking fabric would
certainly give out those kind of messages to all who saw you. The
woman who originally wore this dress would have been much admired
in her up-to-the minute awe-inspiring golden dress.
Fashion doesn’t have to be ornate; and a simple white muslin
dress from 1804 in the new display shows how the understated worked
just as well as the opulent for fashionable women in the past. This
high-waisted evening dress with a sweeping train is embroidered all
over in white beads and would have been worn at dances and balls in
the evening during the years when King George III was unwell, just
before his son, the Prince of Wales was formally declared
Prince Regent in 1811.
The display includes two special exhibits to give the Regency
and Victorian dresses a Royal historical context. The first is a
man’s ensemble worn at the Coronation of George IV in 1821. The
Coronation was an historic pageant with courtiers wearing outfits
to represent various symbolic and ceremonial roles. The ensemble on
display is a green velvet coat and breeches heavily decorated with
gold embroidery and was worn by the Duke of St Albans as Hereditary
Grand Falconer to the new King.
There is one further Royal exhibit in the new display, a dress
worn by Queen Victoria, right at the end of her reign in the 1890s.
The black silk dress is edged with panels of mourning crape,
emphasing how the Queen mourned her husband Prince Albert from his
death in 1861 (when she was only 42) for the rest of her life.
The new display opens at the Fashion Museum at the Assembly
Rooms in Bath on Saturday 16 February 2008 and continues throughout
the rest of the year. Visit the website http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/
for more information on the museum. Open daily.
ENDS
Some facts:
‘ Georgian’ is the term used to describe the period of British
history from 1714 to 1830, the years when the Kings of England were
all called George.
George I was King from 1714 to 1727. He was the first Hanoverian
King, spoke little English and in fact died in Hanover in Germany,
which he visited regularly.
George II was George I’s son and was monarch from 1727 to 1760.
Like his father in 1715, his reign was also threatened with a
Jacobite rebellion, this time in 1745.
George III was the first of the Hanoverian kings to be born in
England and to have English as his first language. He was George
II’s grandson and was King of England from 1760 to 1810. He was
unwell in the late 1780s and in the early 1800s, and was finally
deemed to be mad in 1810. He died in 1821.
George IV was monarch from 1820 until 1830. He had been Prince
Regent from 1811, and was known for his extravagant tastes. It was
he who arranged the building of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.
Technically, the Regency period was between 1811 and 1820, the
years when George III was thought to be unfit to rule, and
his son the Prince of Wales (who later became George IV), was
instated to be his proxy as Prince Regent However, the term is
often used to describe the the years at the end of the 18th
and beginning of the 19th centuries, and can thus be seen as a
transitional period between ‘Georgian’ and ‘Victorian’.
‘Victorian’ is the period of British history when Queen Victoria
was monarch, that is from 1837 to 1901. She is still the
longest reigning British monarch. Queen Victoria was the
grand-daughter of George III, and became Queen of England because
none of George III’s other sons had legitimage children.
For images:
Please contact Maggie Bone, Museums Publicity Officer, for
photographs of the dresses on display. Photographs are available
from 13 February 2008.
Email: maggie_bone@bathnes.gov.uk,
or tel: 01225 477736
For comment:
Please contact Rosemary Harden, Manager of the Fashion
Museum.
Email: rosemary_harden@bathnes.gov.uk,
or tel: 01225 477282.