Dress
1946 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
A black afternoon dress with a good label was both a chic choice and a sensible one. Edward Molyneux (1891-1974) could be relied on to provide streamlined distinction. This dress has a schoolmistress-like authority and propriety; its covered-up look features a demure high neck, long sleeves and a safe, calf-length skirt. However, Molyneux transformed it into a little black dress with attitude by cutting the matt crepe to skim sensuously over the body's curves and by introducing pleats at salient points. A wide sash arranged in folds below the waist emphasised the slenderness of the wearer. The dress buttons down the back.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Silk crêpe |
| Brief description | Silk crêpe day dress, designed by Edward Molyneux, London, 1946 |
| Physical description | Black silk crêpe day dress with a pleated trim and buttons. |
| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Given by Mrs D.M. Haynes and Mrs M. Clark |
| Object history | Opal Holt was born in Canada in 1887 but lived in the US until the end of the Second World War. She travelled extensively between the wars and was in the first plane to land in Bali. She married Herbert Holt, a Canadian who lived a large part of his life in England, as her third husband in 1946. They came to England and Europe every summer and Opal Holt began buying clothes in Paris for her life in England, and for the Bahamas in Winter, over a period of about thirty years. She died in 1980. Given by Mrs D.M Haynes and Mrs. Clark (nee Holt; Opal Holt's step-daughters). |
| Summary | A black afternoon dress with a good label was both a chic choice and a sensible one. Edward Molyneux (1891-1974) could be relied on to provide streamlined distinction. This dress has a schoolmistress-like authority and propriety; its covered-up look features a demure high neck, long sleeves and a safe, calf-length skirt. However, Molyneux transformed it into a little black dress with attitude by cutting the matt crepe to skim sensuously over the body's curves and by introducing pleats at salient points. A wide sash arranged in folds below the waist emphasised the slenderness of the wearer. The dress buttons down the back. |
| Bibliographic reference | Mendes, Valerie. Black In Fashion. London: V&A Publications, 1999.
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.92-1982 |
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| Record created | February 19, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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