Victorian Collections update – Frippery
In the latter part of 2017 Brighton Historical Society was thrilled to receive a Local History Grant from the Public Records Office Victoria. The project is to catalogue a substantial selection of the most important pieces of its costume collection onto Museums Victoria’s Victorian Collections data base. Laura Jocic and I are honoured and excited to get stuck in, research, record and share these valuable snippets of our history. Passionate about the social history of clothing, I hope you enjoy our work.
After each session I thought I’d offer a little taster of our activities in the way of a reoccurring theme or interesting discovery. Click on the image to be taken to the item on Victoria Collections website.
This weeks theme is Frippery.
The lustre on this oyster coloured silk is so beautiful, and the delicate ruching, pleats and lace create a sweet parfait of elegance. It’s owner was an early member of well known Melbourne Jewish family who also lived in a notable historic house, now a prominent art gallery.
This beautiful hand made lace somehow evocative of spiders webs or timber wheels, both which would have been prevalent at the time of its making. Queen Victoria popularised the wearing of white for bridal gowns upon her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840 but the wearing of the lightest of colours was a definite statement of wealth. Laundering of clothing was labour intensive and difficult and so a pure white garment had limited re use.This colour is infinitely more sensible for the dirt and grime it would encounter in it’s lifetime, beyond the wedding day as was common for bridal gowns to be reused for ‘good’.
A lovely woollen four piece wedding gown comprising of bodice, belt, skirt and train. Despite numerous decorative details with fringed ribbons, beading, ruching, lace and bows it remains a very elegant and understated ensemble thanks to its use of a beautiful quality matte wool, matte silks and quartz like beads. A lovely example of texture, and layering of delicate detailing.
A definite favourite of mine for the sheer charm of it. Fancy dress parties were a popular pastime and the “Dolly Varden” style was very popular amongst young women. This ensemble was worn on several occasions including to a Lord Mayor’s ball, possibly on board a ship bound for China…
Dolly Varden was a popular character from Charles Dickens novel “Barnaby Rudge” published in 1841 and inspired a craze of Dolly Varden inspired culture.
As yet we don’t know if there is any significance to the use of lace featuring a Maltese Cross in the design. It might have been a treasure from the travels of the owner’s family. It inspires romantic notions of exotic travel to China, and Europe with fancy dress ball’s enroute in the relative innocence of pre World War One.
Till next time…