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Friday 15 June 2012

The Fortescue Dresses

Lady Arran's Gowns

We now have the pleaseure of giving you a preview of the dresses that are to be exhibited at Castle Hill on July 1st.

 There are about ten dresses altogether that span nearly  a century of dressing up! Some were worn to Royal ocassions and some as everyday garments. All are beautifully made, mostly couture and it has been a real pleasure to handle them and see how they were constructed! The embroidery on the two pictured here is all hand worked and beautifully executed. I have learned a lot!


The yellow cocktail dress is also beautifully embroidered and was worn by Lady Margaret. It is made of silk taffeta and hand worked throughout.

 The Blue Evening dress is silk duchess satin from the 1950's and was worn by Lady Margaret Fortescue. It has the most exquisite hand sewing throughout....and is embroidered all around the lower skirt with beads, pearls and sequins in a floral swirl that was typical of it's time. As many couturiers would not label their dresses for regular clients, we are not sure who this was made by but it could have been Norman Hartnell who designed for the Queen. It has many of his design features.


To see the rest of the collection, come to the Vintage Fair on July 1st. The dresses will be on display in the Red Room.

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