Tea gown made of brocaded georgette and a gold brocaded belt, made by Rachelle Ospovat, London, 1917

Tea gown, a dress made of brocaded green georgette with a gilt thread design of leaves and flowers. The dress has a wide oval neck, and the bodice and skirt are gauged onto the high waist line. The skirt is ankle length and slightly flared, and with a wide machine-made gilt lace flounce at the hem. The sleeves are set in a deep armhole. They are wide, and the gold lace forms the portion elbow to wrist. The armholes and neck are faced with green silk ribbon. Scalloped gilt braid is attached around the neck, yoke and armholes. The dress fastens at the back with hooks and eyes. It is lined throughout with matching chiffon faced at the hem with shot yellow grosgrain silk ribbon. With a gold brocaded belt.

Given by Mrs Gilbert Russell

Acquired in 1969 as an evening dress; but is more likely to be a tea gown to be worn in the afternoon to receive guests for tea, or to be worn to relax in between the demands of the day and dressing to go out in the evening. While tea gowns and coats were more of a Victorian and Edwardian concept, they endured into the 1920s and many high end designers and couture houses, such as Worth, created multiple designs for "tea gowns" and "tea coats". The 1920s tea gown typically followed a fashionable silhouette but incorporated elements of fantasy, reflecting the transition from day to evening. Evening-appropriate materials such as lamé and metallic brocades were used to make up styles that seemed more expected for day wear, such as long-sleeved, shorter dresses. The sleeves on the tea gown were often dramatically flared and/or flowing, to enhance the garment's sense of relaxed luxury. While some sleeveless teagowns are almost indistingishable from evening gowns, especially when made in luurious fabrics, their general relaxed simplicity, higher necklines and/or vestigal sleeves often indicate that they have a more informal purpose. Tea gowns could also be worn for intimate at-home dining in the company of close family and particularly intimate friends, although they were typically not a public garment. Margot Asquith's diary for September 1915 records her wearing a "little grey and silver Ospovat Russian tea-gown which Puffin loves" to have dinner at home with her 13-year old son Anthony ("Puffin"), before they played bridge with two of her women friends.

Madame Rachelle Ospovat was described by the socialite Lady Diana Cooper as "the Russian designer of genius who became famous in London overnight", and Ospovat Ltd. was a noted London fashion house active from the 1910s to the 1930s. Alongside other London couturiers including Lucile and Elizabeth Handley-Seymour, she created fashionable stage costumes for leading ladies in the current London plays, including dresses for Gladys Cooper in the 1914 plays Diplomacy and My Lady's Dress (which also featured a fashion show costumed by Ospovat). In the 1910s Ospovat's business was located at 69 New Bond Street, but by the 1920s Ospovat Ltd. had relocated to 60 Grosvenor Street.

(Daniel Milford-Cottam, 28/08/2024)

T.152&A-1969