Dress
c.1890 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This dress is an example of ‘half-mourning’. The adoption of mourning dress was a powerful way of demonstrating respectability and ‘class’ and generated much work for the dressmaking industries in the late nineteenth century. After the first weeks of wearing unrelieved black, elements of mauve or white could be introduced as a sign of time passing by. The artificial dyes including 'Mauve', discovered in the 1850s and afterwards helped to make dying large quantities of fabric easier and cheaper to achieve, and so fuelled the fashion for wearing mourning colours for personal and official bereavement.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
|
| Materials and techniques | silk, glazed cotton, wool tape |
| Brief description | Dress (bodice and skirt), black and mauve striped silk, Hayward, London, c.1890 |
| Physical description | Separate bodice and skirt of striped silk in black and mauve. The bodice has a stand collar (with a cord edging which may originally have been covered with piping or a trimming), long sleeves, and fastens centre front with hooks and corresponding handstitched eyelets. The front fastening is concealed by an extension to the right hand side of the bodice which may have been pinned in place. The bodice is lined with striped cotton and there are nine short bones giving support. The bodice has been altered, after it was originally made, extending below the waist. The skirt has a herringbone tape wasitband, is made from flat panels at the front, forming pleats either side of the centre back opening. It fastens with three metal hooks and eyes. The skirt is lined with glazed cotton and has a narrow wool tape reinforcing the hem. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | 'HAYWARD'S/166 & 168 OXFORD ST/LONDON.' (Printed onto waist-tape of bodice. The royal crests of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales are printed either side of text.) |
| Credit line | Given by Holly Cranmer |
| Object history | The dress is believed to have been worn by Sophia Lewis, the great-great aunt of the donor. Sophia Lewis was born into a farming family in Montgomeryshire but went to work in domestic service in London with her sister Jenny. At the time Sophia would have worn this dress, she worked as a housekeeper for John Baring, 2nd Baron Revelstoke of Memblant, at his London home in Hill Street, Mayfair. As the dress is silk, it would have been worn for formal occasions, and is perhaps an example of ‘Sunday best’. |
| Summary | This dress is an example of ‘half-mourning’. The adoption of mourning dress was a powerful way of demonstrating respectability and ‘class’ and generated much work for the dressmaking industries in the late nineteenth century. After the first weeks of wearing unrelieved black, elements of mauve or white could be introduced as a sign of time passing by. The artificial dyes including 'Mauve', discovered in the 1850s and afterwards helped to make dying large quantities of fabric easier and cheaper to achieve, and so fuelled the fashion for wearing mourning colours for personal and official bereavement. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.4:1,2-2015 |
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| Record created | August 18, 2014 |
| Record URL |
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