| home :: costume :: livejournal |
|
Costume Photos from UK Trip, January 2006
Please excuse the amateur look of some of these pictures. I'm pretty unexperienced as a photographer so there are lots of flash and other reflections visible - all the costumes were displayed behind a glass. Luckily, I was allowed to use flash in all of the three museums I visited so most of the photos are pretty sharp. On the other hand for this reason they shouldn't be used as a colour reference; also, the satins and taffetas look very shiny instead of the lovely shimmer they have in reality. There are some attempts at non-flash photography but most of those are blurred or otherwise unclear.
More detail shots of some of these costumes can be found in The V&A Museum of the Decorative Arts [official site] This museum is a must visit in London for any costume enthusiast - or anyone interested in visual arts for that matter. They have a room to display objects from their extensive fashion collection but many more costumes are located in the general exhibition rooms that are arranged by century. Most of my photos are from the fashion display as I totally ran out of time and memory card space. All the costumes were beautifully displayed, and though the costumes in the fashion display weren't in chronological order, they were chosen to reflect a certain theme in dress. My only complaint is that I had rather liked to have all the costumes in the same exhibition space. Photos with flash and sketching were allowed and encouraged - besides, I felt quite at home with all the other costume students, some even sitting on the floor in front of the costumes taking notes of the garments when usually I'm the only one who gawks at the details. Pink silk stays with detachable sleeves c. 1660 One of the things you can't see in photos is the scale - how small this garment is for example! The quality of the handwork involved isn't clear either: closeups show the detail but not how tiny the stitches can be. Here, the boning channels are about 3 mm wide.
Riding jacket decorated with silver braid 1750-60 The fabric is camlet, a mixture of silk and camel hair.
Cream silk court mantua 1740-45 Look at all the silk and silver thread embroidery! The stomacher is a reproduction.
Court mantua 1775-85, silk satin with chenille embroidery The fabric for the mantua seems to have been embroidered before it's been made into a dress (compare with the previous example where the embroidery is done to match the pattern pieces).
Dress of brocaded silk satin 1780s The fabric for this dress dates back to 1740s but the gown was altered on a later date.
Woman's banyan 1750-70
Robe à la francaise 1774-5 and petticoat of the same material The fabric was described to be "silk chiné velvet" - it looked like alternating bands of taffeta (stripes) and velvet (flowers). The front of the gown was turned almost against the wall but apparently is closes edge to edge with (decorative?) buttons - kind of transitional style between 'compere' front and closed type of bodice seen in polonaises.
Day dress of white muslin 1818-20 The bodice of this dress is smocked ans stitched with wool but my photos don't show it very well. The hem is decorated with small muslin puffs.
Ball dress c. 1820 The dress is silk satin with an overlay of machine-made net embroidered with silver gilt.
Day dress of white muslin with satin trimming and wool embroidery 1830-3
Day dress of printed cotton with silk satin piping, lined with linen and cotton 1836-40
Day dress bodice and skirt 1863-5
Wedding dress of silk satin 1870
Worth evening dress 1881
Tailored bodice and skirt of wool and silk 1884-5
Evening bodice and skirt of silk satin and grosgrain 1895-1900 The description said it was trimmed with tulle. If it was, it had to be extremely fine tulle, as it looked almost like chiffon to me.
Rouff tea gown, c. 1900 This has to be one of the ugliest gowns I've ever seen. Still, the materials are wonderful. The exotic turqoise glass and metal embroidery at the front derives from India, where it was made for the French market.
Evening coat of brown silk velvet c. 1900 With silk embroidery and felt petal applications. The coat looks black or almost blue in these photos but it's dark brown in real life.
Givenchy evening dress 1955 This dress just screams 'Audrey Hepburn in "Sabrina"'. The dress she wore in the film was from Givenchy's spring/summer 1953 collection and shares many features with this dress: the simple, strapless bodice fitted with darts, wide hem and the long sweeping train. This dress is very Audrey-sized, too. It is ivory silk organdie embroidered with fully cupped transparent sequins (some cups facing up, some against the fabric) and ivory thread in two tones. The leaves may be machine-embroidered and the sequins applied by hand afterwards. The neckline is trimmed with bias-cut organdie strip. The description didn't tell what material the underdress is but I'd guess it is made of ivory silk satin.
Vivienne Westwood Watteau ball gown spring/summer 1996 What a fabulous dress of green and purple shot-silk faille and taffeta! The left side of the dress is traditionally cut mid-18th century dress with large pleated cuff. The right side is strapless and the neckline runs under the right arm diagonally across the back to the left shoulder. The gown has 18th century 'watteau' back pleats which extend into a long trained skirt. The bows (the 'echelles') at the front bend towards the left shoulder. I would suspect the gown has a tulle crinoline.
Some (bad) photos of a ribbon corset 1890-1900, stays 1780-90 and a linen chemise 1851.
The Museum of London [official site] After the V&A, this museum wasn't such a great experience but nevertheless they had some nice gowns on display. The exhibition is mostly about the history of London and arranged chronologically. The costumes were displayed in glass casings, most of them had their backs faced against the wall so no great detail from there. Also, I think the casings were a bit cramped and the dresses could have been better displayed if they had had more space around them - but I hadn't seen the Museum of Costume in Bath yet! The museum's guidelines considering photography seem to vary a bit. From what I had heard and read photos weren't allowed. Well, I asked at the info desk if I can take flash photos and the answer was: "Yes, in some places." So I took some photos, with flash, and didn't get yelled at. I didn't take any photos of the 18th century dresses, though, maybe they don't allow photos there. Unfortunately, I've lost all my notes from the Museum of London and the Costume Museum of Bath so I can't tell exact dates for the dresses. Late 18th century The sash is a reproduction.
Early 19th century
Mid 19th century The blue sash is a reproduction.
Late 19th century
The Museum of Costume, Bath [official site] I had expected a bit more from this visit, after all it was a museum entirely dedicated to costume. They have a really nice 18th century collection but I think it was poorly displayed: some of the dresses fit the mannequins badly and many gowns were just hanging on the background as if they were stored there. The 19th century collection was basically packed into two small glass casings and shoes and acessories were randomly placed all over. Maybe the reason for the lack of space was that I arrived there two weeks after the Jane Austen: Film and Fashion exhibit had ended and they were still in the process of taking it down. The special exhibition they had was the Nureyev Style, a special display of ballet star Rudolf Nureyev’s costume, fashion and textile collection which was little interest to me. It had a few nice 18th century pieces, though. There was a really nice display of embroidered 18th century linens. It was great to see those up close. It was also possible to try on corsets from different eras - the corsets were made of modern materials, like safety harnesses, which I thought was a great idea. 1660s dress This is the oldest dress in the collection. The shift is a reproduction.
18th century
Early 19th century
Mid 19th century
Late 19th century/early 20th century
Man's 18th century suit from the Nureyev collection
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
