Dress #052: Edwardian dress in purple and blue. 2016
This Edwardian evening dress is made from Japanese paper, overlaid with Japanese tissue; It is hand stitched on cold-pressed 100% cotton paper. The Japanese tissue imitates the silk chiffon over satin of the original dress, with blue paper made with iridescent threads standing in for the pleated satin waistband and trim. The Japanese tissue imitates the silk chiffon over satin of the original dress, with blue paper made with iridescent threads standing in for the pleated satin waistband and trim.
It is based on an English dress from 1912, designed by Lucile of London, held by the Victoria & Albert Museum (accession T.35-1960). The dress was worn by Miss Heather Firbank of Mayfair, London; the Victoria and Albert Museum holds over a hundred pieces from Miss Firbank’s wardrobe. Miss Firbank would have been a contemporary of Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary Crawley, and I can picture Lady Mary wearing a dress just like this one!
The dress is six inches tall, stitched by hand on 8x10 inch 100% cotton watercolour paper, which means that it will pop right into any commercial frame in that size, and be ready to hang on your wall.
Materials: Japanese paper and cotton floss on cotton paper