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| The 1580s smock in the first case |
On Friday night I was lucky enough to go to a reception for
the Bath Fashion Museum’s new
exhibition Lace in
Fashion. The exhibition will be open from 4th February 2017 to 1st
January 2018, and on the first day of the exhibition I heard a fascinating talk
by its curator, Elly Summers, about how the exhibition came about and the
thinking behind it.
In April 2014 the Museum was given a grant by Arts Council
England, to help catalogue its large lace collection. Fifty trays of lace, some
with very little information, were sorted with the help of several people from
the Lace Guild. Around 4000 items were
examined. The majority received a very basic catalogue entry, but 400
exceptional pieces were catalogued in depth and photographed. These photographs
will be made available via the Bridgman
Art Library . While it was possible to photograph some lace flat, others
were photographed over mannequins that were mocked up in black to the basic
period outline.
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| The 1860s wedding veil |
The exhibition itself takes up the large central area of the
museum. The earliest item on display is a 1580s smock with plaited lace
insertion down the sides of the sleeves.
Please note that my photographs were taken in low light in a very
crowded exhibition, you really need to go to see the items for yourself. The
most recent item in the exhibition is a 2016 laser printed dress, which was bought online for £1.
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| The 1805 bobbin lace dress |
Among the highlights for me were, the stunning 1660s silver
tissue dress with parchment lace, the 1860s cream silk wedding veil that is a
mixed of bobbin and needle lace applied to a machine net, the 1805 bobbin lace
dress that may once have belonged to Queen Charlotte, there was an article about this in the Guardian, and I suppose if I have to chose something modern
the red lace dress worn by Dame Helen Mirren.
