Costume design
Costume Design
c.1947 (designed)
c.1947 (designed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This design is for a show-girl's costume in a revue produced by ENSA, or the Entertainments National Service Association, probably in about 1947. Glamorous numbers with exotic dancers were a popular aspect of the light-hearted wartime revues frequently produced at the time at London's Windmill Theatre, in West End theatres, and around the country. Ronald Cobb was something of a specialist in witty designs for show-girls' costumes, and in the early 1950s produced even more elaborate designs for costumes at the London nightclubs Eve's and Murray's Cabaret Club.
This design would have been for a show produced by John C. Mather, who devised his first show to entertain the Kinross Home Guards in his home town of Kinross, near Perth, Scotland, in 1941. He went on to become a producer for ENSA shows which travelled to garrison theatres in the United Kingdom and where British troops were stationed abroad.
This design would have been for a show produced by John C. Mather, who devised his first show to entertain the Kinross Home Guards in his home town of Kinross, near Perth, Scotland, in 1941. He went on to become a producer for ENSA shows which travelled to garrison theatres in the United Kingdom and where British troops were stationed abroad.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Costume design (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour on cartridge paper |
| Brief description | Costume design for a mediaeval-style girl in a war-time show produced by John C. Mather for ENSA. Watercolour, bodycolour and pencil by Ronald Cobb c.1947. Given by Rose-Mary McClory. |
| Physical description | Costume design showing a dark-haired mediaeval-style glamour girl standing, full-length, wearing a long, tight-fitting, mediaeval-style dress with an off-the-shoulder bodice and ermine-trimmed neckline plunging to a cleavage. The skirt is slashed to the thigh, and she wears a very tall, conical silver head-dress from which hang layers of white net, a length of which becomes a train behind her and is gathered with decorative floral bands around her wrists. Stamped top right: 'DESIGNED AND PAINTED BY RONALD COBB' |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | 'DESIGNED AND PAINTED BY RONALD COBB (Stamped in top right-hand corner underneath the monogram 'RAC' within a rectangular frame.) |
| Credit line | Given by Rose-Mary McClory |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | This design is for a show-girl's costume in a revue produced by ENSA, or the Entertainments National Service Association, probably in about 1947. Glamorous numbers with exotic dancers were a popular aspect of the light-hearted wartime revues frequently produced at the time at London's Windmill Theatre, in West End theatres, and around the country. Ronald Cobb was something of a specialist in witty designs for show-girls' costumes, and in the early 1950s produced even more elaborate designs for costumes at the London nightclubs Eve's and Murray's Cabaret Club. This design would have been for a show produced by John C. Mather, who devised his first show to entertain the Kinross Home Guards in his home town of Kinross, near Perth, Scotland, in 1941. He went on to become a producer for ENSA shows which travelled to garrison theatres in the United Kingdom and where British troops were stationed abroad. |
| Associated objects |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.176-2007 |
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| Record created | November 7, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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