Woman's riding habit, 1875-1900, English, black wool jacket and skirt with black silk hat, lace veil, and whitework collar and cuffs

Riding habit consisting of a black wool jacket and skirt, cambric collar and cuffs decorated with floral whitework embroidery, black silk hat and black lace veil. The fitted jacket has a high round neckline, long fitted sleeves, two front pockets, and fastens with twelve sets of buttons.

Given by Messrs Harrods Ltd.

This was part of a very large collection of items of dress and accessories which was given to the Museum by Harrods, the department store, in 1913. The collection had been formed by the artist Talbot Hughes, who wrote a book on the history of dress, illustrated with photographs of models wearing items from his collection. A large firm in America had offered to buy the collection and present it to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, but Hughes did not want it to go abroad. At the suggestion of Cecil Harcourt Smith of the V&A, Harrods bought it for £2,500 and gave it to the Museum for the 'public good'. Harrods displayed the collection for three weeks in December 1913.

T.657-1913