1909 Lilac linen dress
| ||||||||||||||||||
1909-1910 A dress in lilac linen.
-
The back of the dress
-
The decoration on the front of the skirt
-
The end of one of the sleeves
-
The motif on the centre front of the belt
Description
The bodice is cut on the bias as one piece of the linen, with no shoulder seams; the opening is at the centre back and the side seams continue down the extended sleeves. It is all lined with white cotton.
The lining has 16 hooks and eyes alternately down the centre back edges, and there are 6" long bones each side at the waist. The linen over the top is fastened by seven hooks and bars.
The back of the bodice has two small pleats each side into the ¾" wide waistband, which is white petersham with two hooks and eyes to fasten 2¾" to the left of centre back, at the position of the skirt opening.
The bodice front has slits 3½" apart at the centre of the waist; the edges have a self binding, ⅜" wide, and are 7½" long on the outside edge but the centre section is 2" longer and hangs in a pouch. A panel of cutwork embroidered lawn is sewn to the lining and shows thorough the slits, gathered into the waistband where the slits are 1" apart. Two pairs of white crochet covered domed buttons, linked by white interlaced cotton cords, are spaced down each slit. The ends of the extended sleeves have the same decoration with the slits being 4" long on one side and 5" on the other, and the binding continues round the sleeve ends.
The undersleeves are made of the same cutwork embroidered lawn, and their ends have 2¼" deep pleated frills folded up over them; the frills have a ⅜" hem with drawn-thread work along the top.
The same frill, 2⅜" wide, goes round the neck with a ¼" wide binding of openwork cotton round the top.
The skirt has a box-pleat, 4½" wide, at the centre back, with the opening under it on the left, and is closed with five press fasteners. There are three more pleats each side and the ones on the right are held in place with a ⅝" wide tape on the inside, 5" down from the waist. Another tape secures all the pleats just below the end of the opening, and there is a ¾" wide length of elastic, now perished, 4" below that.
Floating panels of the linen cover the sides of the skirt, 4½" apart at the front, 4¾" apart at the back, and about 33" long. They are joined 21½" down from the waist, front and back, by panels of heavy cotton embroidered net, 6" deep; these cover a gap of 9½" at the top flaring out to 10" below in front, 11" at the back, and they are secured to the skirt underneath by a couple of holding stitches along their tops.
The self belt is 2" wide and made of overlapping ½" sections top-stitched down. It fastens at the back with three hooks and bars under two of the crochet covered domed buttons. At the centre front is a pointed oval motif of embroidered net, 4½" long and in the same style as the panels on the skirt. This looks a little discoloured.
Contemporary illustrations
-
Fashion plate L'Art et la Mode, 1909
-
Fashion drawing in Lady's World, June 1911
-
Detail from an advertisement in Lady's World, June 1911
History
The dress belonged to Heather Firbank, a socialite in the early 20th century.
She was born in 1888 into a wealthy family and presented at Court in 1908; she bought her clothes from fashionable dressmakers, and this became an increasing obsession leading inevitably to financial problems.
In 1921 Heather sold some items, but kept a lot, packed into 24 trunks by her maid, Adelaide Hallett, and these went into storage; she presumably hoped for a reversal in her fortunes one day. When she died in 1954 this collection passed to her nephew, Lt-Col Thomas Firbank, and in 1960 a large quantity was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Apparently Heather Firbank had two of each dress made, so that as one got soiled she could just wear a new one. The dress here has some marks and seems to have been washed; the belt is a slightly different colour from the dress, and the white cotton trimming has a faintly lilac tinge possibly acquired from the colour of the linen running. Maybe this was the first dress, abandoned when damaged, and the pristine duplicate is the one which can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum.