
-
Theatre costume
Beaton, Cecil - Enlarge image
Theatre costume
- Date:
1958 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Beaton, Cecil (Sir), born 1904 - died 1980 (costume designers)
M Berman Ltd (theatrical costumiers) - Credit Line:
Given by the Friends of the Victoria and Albert Museum
- Museum number:
S.773-1982
- Gallery location:
In Storage
Cecil Beaton's costume designs for My Fair Lady added immeasurably to the success of Lerner and Lowe's musical both in New York and London. Set in 1914, Beaton was able to look back on the period of his childhood and to incorporate fashions remembered from relatives, family friends and the picture postcard beauties that he avidly collected. However, the dress he designed for Eliza at the Embassy ball is timeless, and the simplicity and uncluttered line look forward to the 1960s as much as back to pre-1914. The impact of the dress was especially strong as it was first seen not in the ballroom scene, amid many other beautiful dresses, but in the dark, masculine setting of Higgins's batchelor establishment as Eliza descended the wooden staircase to the strains of 'I could have danced all night.'