Evening dress with matching belt, silk satin with metal thread embroidery, diamantés and pastes, designed by Owen Hyde-Clark for Worth London, London, England, about 1960

Evening dress of embroidered Chartreuse yellow silk satin, with matching belt.

Metal thread embroidery with diamantés and pastes on the bodice, which is boned and fastens at the centre back with a zip. Rouleau straps. Seams outlned in corded satin which runs down the bodice and terminates in loops on the skirt, which is bell shaped. The skirt is supported on an inner skirt of matching silk which is boned and covered and flounced in tulle. The skirt is faced back at the hem with white nylon and the remainder is lined with tulle.

There is a wide detachable belt in silk satin of the same colour. It features self-covered buttons.

Given by Mrs Roy Hudson

This dress was given and worn by Mrs Roy Hudson, who donated a small group of items to the V&A in 1973.

It is by Worth London, successor the Paris fashion house founded as Worth et Bobergh in 1858. Worth London became famous for women's eveningwear featuring ornate hand embellishment. Owen Hyde-Clark led on design at Worth London around the time this dress was made.

Documentation associated with the acquisition of this dress explains that Mrs Hudson was a friend of Miss Whistler, who worked at Worth London. Mrs Hudson used to buy models from the collection.

Registered Papers 72/2903.

This dress is typical of those made by Worth London, famous for its ornately hand-embellished evening gowns, in the 1950s and early 1960s. Made of lustrous silk satin, it has a heavily embellished boned bodice with metal thread embroidery, diamantés and pastes. With a close-fitting bodice emphasising the waist and a full skirt, it demonstrates the silhouette popular in places including England and France in and around the 1950s, which was referncing womenswear fashion from a century earlier in these parts of the world.

T.215&A-1973