Petticoat, costume petticoat

This white cotton organdie petticoat was worn under the dress for the Miller’s Wife in the ballet Le Tricorne/The Three Cornered Hat. It is cut in five sections and has a hoop a quarter of the way up from the hem. The petticoat has a drawstring waist.

This costume however does not appear to date from the original 1919 production, but from a later version. It seems to have been made in the mid to late 1920s or possibly the early 1930s for Lubov Tchernicheva. Tchernicheva was tall by the standards of the day so it is likely that she had her own costume made. This was possibly made in the late 1920s when Tchernicheva performed the role with the Ballets Russes. It was, however, definitely worn in the 1930s when Tchernicheva performed the role in the revival to the ballet for Colonel de Basil’s Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. Tchernicheva b.1890 – d.1976, trained at the Imperial Ballet School in St Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre in 1908. She joined Diaghilev’s Company permanently in 1911 with her husband, rehearsal director, Serge Grigoriev and they remained with the company till it folded in 1929. They then went on to work for Colonel de Basil and the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo.

Le Tricorne/The Three Cornered Hat premièred in London at the Alhambra Theatre on the 22nd of July 1919. The score was composed by Manuel de Falla, the choreography by Léonide Massine and the sets and costumes designed by Pablo Picasso. The costumes were made by London based costumier Charles Alias and the sets were painted by Vladimir and Elizabeth Polunin with assistance from Picasso himself at their rented studio in Floral St. (A plaque marks this building today).

Notes by Caroline Hamilton