Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum

The Fashion or Costume Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum is one of the most comprehensive, containing over 14,000 outfits plus accessories, mainly dating from 1600 to the present.

The collection is dominated by fashionable clothes made for special occasions. One of the more important items in the collection is the wedding suit of James II of England.

Some of the oldest items in the collection are medieval vestments. The museum continues to acquire examples with modern fashion to add to the collection.

The 20th-century high-fashion garments and accessories include gowns worn by leading socialites such as Patricia Lopez-Willshaw, Gloria Guinness, and actresses such as Audrey Hepburn.

The Museum has acquired many famous collections from famous designers with work in the collection including Coco Chanel, Hubert de Givenchy, Christian Dior, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Guy Laroche, Irene Galitzine, Mila Schön, Valentino Garavani, Norman Norell, Norman Hartnell, Zandra Rhodes, Hardy Amies, Mary Quant, Christian Lacroix, Jean Muir, and Pierre Cardin.

A Tour of Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Evening dress, 1912, by Lady Duff-Gordon
Wedding suit of James II
Zemire Evening Ensemble
Butler-Bowden Cope

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Evening dress, 1912, by Lady Duff-Gordon

This Evening Dress is a graceful satin gown by Lady Duff Gordon in a reasonably restrained mood. The long slit skirt is an attractive feature, although its draped construction is not too revealing.

Lady Duff Gordon’s claim that she had:

“loosed upon a startled London . . . draped skirts that opened to reveal the legs.”

Lady Duff-Gordon (1863 – 1935) was a leading British fashion designer for centuries who worked under Lucile’s professional name.

She was the first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim. She was also a widely acknowledged innovator in couture styles.

She originated the “mannequin parade,” a precursor to the modern fashion show, and trained the first professional models.

She launched slit skirts and low necklines, popularized less restrictive corsets, and promoted alluring and pared-down lingerie.

Duff-Gordon is also remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

She wrote in 1932:

“For me, there was a positive intoxication in taking yards of shimmering silks,
laces airy as gossamer and lengths of ribbons, delicate and rainbow-colored,
and fashioning of them garments so lovely that some princess might have worn them in a fairy tale.”

Evening dress, 1912, by Lady Duff-Gordon

Title: Evening dress, 1912, by Lady Duff-Gordon
Date: 1913
Artist/Maker: Lucile, (1863 – 1935)
Origin: London
Materials: Satin, trimmed with chiffon and machine-made lace, silk velvet, lined with grosgrain, whalebone
Museum: Victoria and Albert Museum

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Zemire Evening Ensemble

This Zemire Evening Ensemble by Christian Dior as part of Dior’s collection in 1954-5. It is one of his most historical designs, echoing the shape of riding-habits.

A ready-to-wear version was licensed to a British company that made copies for Harrods. It sold for 22 guineas, a fraction of what a made-to-measure version would have cost.

Dior was founded in 1946 by designer Christian Dior who launched his first fashion collection for Spring–Summer 1947.

The show of “90 models of his first collection on six mannequins” was presented in the company’s headquarters’ salons.

The collection went down in fashion history as the “New Look” after the editor-in-chief of Harper’s exclaimed,

“It’s such a new look!”

The New Look was a revolutionary era for women at the end of the 1940s. The debut collection of Christian Dior is credited with having revived the fashion industry of France.

The New Look brought back the spirit of haute couture in France as it was considered glamorous and young-looking.

The silhouette was characterized by a small, nipped-in waist and a full skirt falling below mid-calf length, emphasizing the bust and hips.

Zemire Evening Ensemble

Title: Zemire Evening Ensemble
Artist: Dior, Christian, (1905 – 1957) – designer; Christiane – Atelier
Maker: Sekers Fabrics Ltd. – manufacturer
Date: 1954-1955 (designed)
Origin: Paris
Materials: Cellulose acetate satin lined with silk; boned net underdress
Museum: Victoria and Albert Museum

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Butler-Bowden Cope

Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Butler-Bowden Cope

The Butler-Bowden Cope derives its name from the family who owned it for several centuries.

It shows scenes from the Life of the Virgin with Apostles and saints, embroidered with silver, silver-gilt thread, and silk, on luxurious crimson velvet.

The figures framed within Gothic arches are arranged in concentric rows to follow the curved edge and sit along the hem.

This was the base for the high-quality English embroidery called “Opus Anglicanum,” the Latin for “English work,” which was much coveted by Europe’s most influential people.

European kings and popes used luxurious clothing to make a forceful visual statement of their wealth and status.

Vestments with sumptuous and costly textiles were favored by the Christian church, often given by wealthy donors, to show both earthly wealth and spiritual devotion.

Many medieval church vestments were later cut up and re-used. As can be seen from its dismembered state, this cope was made into a variety of ecclesiastical garments but was re-assembled in the 19th century.

Butler-Bowden Cope

Title: Butler-Bowden Cope
Date: 1335-1345 (made)
Origin: England (made); Italy (velvet, probably, woven)
Materials: Embroidered with silver-gilt and silver thread and colored silks in underside couching, split stitch, and satin stitch, with surface couching and raised work, glass beads, and pearls, on silk velvet with an interlayer of silk in plain weave; orphreys embroidered on linen.
Museum: Victoria and Albert Museum