Wedding Suit
1954 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Lady Alexandra Howard-Johnston (1907-97) was the wife of the Naval Attaché to Paris at the end of the 1940s. She required an extensive wardrobe for the many formal dinners and state functions that she had to attend.
A couture client would attend all the fashion collections, seated in the front row if she were especially important like Lady Alexandra. After the show, she would place her orders with her vendeuse (personal saleswoman).
Lady Alexandra dressed exclusively at the house of Jacques Fath (1912-54), and commissioned this dress from Jacques Fath shortly before he died, for her second marriage to Hugh Trevor-Roper (later Baron Dacre). She told Cecil Beaton, 'the dress made for my wedding to Hugh was made up on the wrong side of the material (my idea because the colour of the right side did not suit me) and that dress was worn and worn.'
A couture client would attend all the fashion collections, seated in the front row if she were especially important like Lady Alexandra. After the show, she would place her orders with her vendeuse (personal saleswoman).
Lady Alexandra dressed exclusively at the house of Jacques Fath (1912-54), and commissioned this dress from Jacques Fath shortly before he died, for her second marriage to Hugh Trevor-Roper (later Baron Dacre). She told Cecil Beaton, 'the dress made for my wedding to Hugh was made up on the wrong side of the material (my idea because the colour of the right side did not suit me) and that dress was worn and worn.'
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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| Materials and techniques | Worsted and cotton, figured with gold lurex thread, lined and boned |
| Brief description | Jacket and dress in pale brown worsted and cotton, designed by Jacques Fath, Paris, 1954 |
| Physical description | Jacket and dress in pale brown worsted and cotton, figured with a spot pattern in gold gilt thread. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Haute couture |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'Jacques Fath / Paris' [with emblem above] (Label, machine woven, black on white) |
| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Given by Lady Alexandra Trevor-Roper |
| Object history | Lady Alexandra was married to Hugh Trevor-Roper in this Fath dress on October 4, 1954. The dress is modest as this was her second marriage. She had previously been married to Captain (later Rear-Admiral) Clarence Dinsmore Howard-Johnston, by whom she had had three children. |
| Historical context | Lady Trevor-Roper favoured designs by Jacques Fath for her wardrobe, and contributed the vast proportion of the V&A's Fath collection. |
| Associations | |
| Summary | Lady Alexandra Howard-Johnston (1907-97) was the wife of the Naval Attaché to Paris at the end of the 1940s. She required an extensive wardrobe for the many formal dinners and state functions that she had to attend. A couture client would attend all the fashion collections, seated in the front row if she were especially important like Lady Alexandra. After the show, she would place her orders with her vendeuse (personal saleswoman). Lady Alexandra dressed exclusively at the house of Jacques Fath (1912-54), and commissioned this dress from Jacques Fath shortly before he died, for her second marriage to Hugh Trevor-Roper (later Baron Dacre). She told Cecil Beaton, 'the dress made for my wedding to Hugh was made up on the wrong side of the material (my idea because the colour of the right side did not suit me) and that dress was worn and worn.' |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.178&A-1974 |
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| Record created | January 11, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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