Dress, evening dress

This cream silk and silver beaded dress was designed for dancing. Modern energetic jazz dances required dresses that looked good when moving fast, particularly with the arrival from America of the high-kicking Charleston in 1926. The owner of this dress is unknown but it was almost certainly a young woman, one of the 1920's 'bright young things'.

Cream silk chiffon bodice, cut with deep 'v' neck at front and back. Small cap sleeves edged with silver and diamanté studs. Bodice with wide strip of embroidery at hip level, with 'skirt' of long beaded fringe with silver bugle beads, each with a tassel of cream silk thread. Embroidery arranged in bands around neckline, descending at centre front to the wide band at dropped waist level, forming a border around a triangular piece of black silk at centre front. Embroidery designed in symmetrical scrolling patterns carried out with silver glass bugle beads, flat round silver studs and diamantes set into gilt claws, with twisted silver thread at waist level panel. Bodice lined with cream plain weave silk. Said to have been made by Reville and Rossiter. Lack of underskirt and uneven embroidery on black triangle suggest later alterations.