Hi All,
Just back from Bath, a 70 mile, 2 hour journey each way, so rather
tired. But I don’t remember seeing any comment here on the ‘Lace in
Fashion’ exhibition, although I know lacemakers have been to see it.
So a few comments before I go to bed…..
I guess I felt it was a bit of a let down. The exhibition was fairly
small, about 30-40 dresses, and it focussed mainly on machine made lace,
and on recent (1950's onwards) and current fashions.
It started well. The first display unit contained a lace pillow with a
lovely piece of Beds made recently by Dawson, I can’t remember the first
name but I wondered if it was a relative of Miss Dawson. There were some
lovely old gloves embellished with embroidery and metallic lace, but I
couldn’t make out the lace. I had the same problem with the man’s tunic.
It was decorated with blackwork and trimmed with a very narrow border of
lace, an early work of 1620-1650 (I’m not very good at dates so this
could be quite wrong). The parchment lace tissue dress was also on
display here.
It seemed to me that handmade lace was presented as an incredibly
expensive fabric and that it was very quickly replaced by machine made
lace. The next display unit moved on to Jacquard, Leavers and Raschel,
etc, machine made lace gowns. There was nothing about the collars,
berthas, flounces, caps and so on that were fashionable for decades.
(Just one cap with lappets on display). There was a hand made Irish
crochet dress, a dress decorated with Blonde, and a more recent outfit
included a Bucks Point collar which I could hardy make out, but nothing
that really represented the hey-day of lace in fashion.
About half the exhibition was made up of recent designers, such as
Hartnett, Amies, Lagerfield and so on, but none of these used hand made
lace. There was a sparkly evening gown worn by the Queen Mother and a
sculptured mini-dress from the recent James Bond Spectre film.
There was a beautiful dress, believed to have been worn by Queen
Charlotte, wife of George III, empire style, diaphanous fine white lace
over a silk under gown and with a short train. Unfortunately it was
almost impossible to see the lace because of the dim lighting. And this
was a problem throughout the exhibition. Time and again, I couldn't see
the lace. Also, I was looking forward to seeing the parchment lace
dress, but it was too dim for me to work out how it was made and no
explanation was given.
I guess the exhibition reflected the collection that the Museum holds,
rather than representing the changing trends of lace in fashion over the
centuries. I imagine it would be interesting to students of modern
fashion, but I think there are better places to go for those interested
in hand made lace and costume.
I’d be interested to hear other opinions, others might have a very
different impression.
From a travel-weary
Jane
In Hampshire, UK
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