Dress, beaded silk and chiffon, Barolet, London, ca. 1920. Worn by Ethel Irving in unidentifed production.

White full-length evening dress with silk bead embroidered panels mounted on chiffon and chiffon sleeves.

British Theatre Museum Association

Costume worn by Ethel Irving in unidentified production.
Ethel Irving began her career in music hall and musical comedy, before scoring a success in Somerset Maugham’s play Lady Frederick (her negligee worn in the role also survives in the Theatre Museum collections). By 1916, she formed her own company, touring Britain and South Africa.
The costume came to the Museum with the attribution of having been worn by Irving in the play Tosca; however, no images survive showing her wearing this dress and it is in a completely different style from those shown in photographs. The Tosca costumes were superb reconstructions of French Empire court costumes, coloured and trimmed, quite different from the understated elegance of this costume. Barolet is credited with costumes on several productions in which Irving appeared, but so far the costume does not match any images in the collections, nor is it clear from the programme credits if Barolet supplied the costumes for Irving or for another actress.

Historical significance: The dress is an example of a costume created for the stage by a leading fashion house. From the mid-19th century, couturiers, notably Worth, supplied leading performers with costumes, oftenin 'fashionable historical' style, (as those for Adelina Patti), but with the growth of contemporary plays towards the end of the century, leading fashion houses supplied costumes for leading ladies, partly as an advertisement for their forthcoming collections. This costume has 'historical' overtones in the diamante 'cross lacing' at the sides, while the basic style remains Edwardian.

This elegant and beautifully made costume was worn by Ethel Irving, a leading acress during the late 19th and early 20th century. It was not made by a theatrical costumier, but by a leading fashion house of the period, Barolet of Knightsbridge.
From the mid-19th century, couturiers, notably Worth, supplied leading performers with costumes, often for historical productions, but with the period costumes given a fashionable slant. Towards the end of the century, leading fashion houses supplied costumes for leading ladies in contemporary plays, partly as an advertisement for their forthcoming collections.
Such delicate costumes required extreme care in the hurly-burly of theatre, especially in the days before dry cleaning; in the late 19th and early 20th century, actresses never sat down in their costumes off-stage and carpets were often laid from dressing-room to stage, to protect the management's investments.

S.1346-1984