Appreciated as artworks in their own right, Léon Bakst's orientalist designs for the 1910 ballet Schéhérazade were published in various formats at the time. The drawing for our costume featured in this page from Comœdia Illustré of June 15th 1910 @gallicabnf and, amongst other publications, had its own page in the prestigious magazine 'Art et Décoration' half a year later https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5408692r/f54.item.r=leon%20bakst%20indien #balletsrusses #sergediaghilev #scheherazade #scheherazadeballet #rimskykorsakov #1910fashion #balletcostume #leonbakst #bakst #bakstcostumedesign #costumedrawing #costumedesign #balletsrussescostume #balletsrussesdiaghilev #iconiccostumes #historyofcostume #historyoffashion #orientalistdesign #johnbrightcollection
Investing in stage productions has always been a gamble even without a pandemic forcing venues to close their doors for months. Legendary producers like Sergei Diaghilev were not immune to financial distress when a show failed to attract the expected audience numbers. This was the case with the Ballet Russes' 1921 ' Sleeping Beauty' at London's Alhambra Theatre, for which Bakst designed this costume.The opulent show left Diaghilev in debt and he had to leave the UK to evade his creditors. Considering his company's lasting impact on art, culture and design, we feel grateful he was prepared to take these risks. The added dangers of the Covid crisis temporarily make such big adventures impossible for today's producers and we hope that ways to help theatres survive will be found. #balletsrusses #diaghilev #leonbakst #bakstcostumedesign #левбакст #sleepingbeautyballet #belleauboisdormant #alhambratheatre #theatreproducer #wemakeevents #theatricalcostumes #balletcostume #historyofdress #performancecostume #costumedesign @gallicabnf #sleepingprincess #londontheatre #boxofficeflop #historyofdesign #fashionhistory #theatrical
Two of our most popular original Ballets Russes costumes are out on loan, the ‘Adolescent’ from ‘Scheherazade’ and the Mazurka costume from ‘The Sleeping Princess’. See them displayed in the enchanting exhibition ‘The Triumph of Neptune’ @renishawhallg presented by @pollockstoymuseum ! #balletsrusses #leonbakst #balletsrussescostumes #historyofcostume
Braid and soutache borders also were a popular design in 1860s childrenswear and our collection owns several examples. In 1863, Peterson’s magazine describes red braid on white piqué as a popular choice for dresses of ‘quite young children’ of both sexes. Our dress at the top being a perfect example and presumably appropriate for both boys and girls. A similar shape can be seen worn with a blouse below in a fashion plate from 1866 ‘Mode Illustrée’. The dress in the illustration is captioned as white piqué with ‘havane ‘ soutache work - probably the colour to two yet uncatalogued children‘s dresses from our collection we took some exclusive snapshots of for this post (swipe). #braiding #victorianchildren #1860sfashion #1860sstyle #soutache @cosproplondonuk
Crisp white piqué with contrasting soutache work - how could this not be a 1860s favourite combination for spring and summer outdoor ensembles, particularly by the sea? ‘Due to the small effort of its execution, soutache work will remain a popular trimming for the summer season’, translates the caption of a design published in the July 1860 edition of ‘Der Bazar’(swipe). The border of our dress (left) and that on the illustration from 1862 ‘Allgemeine Moden – Zeitung’ (right) are very similar versions of this style, combining abstract borders reminiscent of Greek meanders with large stylized floral designs. In our next posts we will show the omnipresence of soutache work in the 1860s reflected in our collection and get into some more detail about the technique and materials used. Both magazine pages used in this post are digitised by @ulbduesseldorf #1860sfashion #soutache #victorianstyle #1860sdress #historyofdress
Get a rare chance to take a closer look at some of our collection items on 5 February at the Fashion and Textile Museum! The workshop ‘Close Encounters – Treasures from Cosprop’s Historic Collection’ is part of a series of events accompanying the exhibition ‘Costume Couture’. Join Barbara Kloos, Historic Collection Curator at Cosprop, her assistants Sage Foley and Annie Lloyd, and Keith Lodwick curator of the exhibition Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop, as they take an intimate look at a selection of historical garments from the John Bright Collection that have inspired objects in the exhibition. One of the objects will be the 1880s dress shown on the left. It inspired Nastassja Kinski’s wedding dress from ‘Tess’, that is displayed in the exhibition. Find a link to the event in our bio. #fashionandtextilemuseum #closeencounters #museumevents #studysession #originalcostume #victoriandress #filmcostume #historyofdress #johnbrightcollection #costumecouture @cosproplondonuk@fashiontextilemuseum
Belated Happy 250th Birthday to a lady who thankfully has created an abundance of jobs and opportunities for costume professionals like us and delights with her wit and sharp observations of human folly to this day - Jane Austen!
Our checked dress from around 1800 could easily be pictured on of her heroines. The loving mending seen in the second picture would also suit one of her female protagonists. To carry out work like this, the character might have worn similar accessories to the apron, mittens and fichu shown in 1799 ‚Journal des Dames et des Modes‘ in the third image (from @gallicabnf ) that add some practicality and warmth to the outfit. With her large work bag, the pictured lady certainly seems to be on a needlework mission! #janeausten #janeaustenfashion #1800sfashion #1800sdress #regencydress #regencyfashion #historicalmending #visiblemending #mending #checkedfabric #checkeddress #historyofdress #fashionhistory
Usually, it is difficult to put precise dates on 19th Century menswear. Styles progressed more slowly and subtly than the dramatic shifts we see in womenswear. In this case, the misfortune of Ord & Purvis, the manufacturers of our 1870s tailcoat, is our luck:
Robert Ord and James Purvis took over the well-established tailoring business of Mr. Colville Smith on Hide Hill in Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1872, as announced in their opening notice in the ‘Illustrated Berwick Journal’ of 30 August of that year. In the ‘Berwick Advisor’ of 19 September 1873, the original business is described as established in 1809 and the new owners thank the community for their support over their first year. Their own success, however was short-lived, on 11 November 1874, the Newcastle Journal lists them under ‚Bankruptcy Annulled‘, in the following years they are listed under bankrupts with the dividends they have to pay to their creditors. So we can conclude that our coat was presumably made between 1872 and 1874.
The added images from ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’from 1872 illustrate that the lines of the cut, the short tails and details like the single button on the cuffs are indeed typical of early 1870s men’s dress coats. #1870sfashion #1870smenswear #tailcoat #victoriantailcoat #victorianmenswear #historyofmensfashion #historyofstyle #historyofdress #victoriantailoring #victorianstyle #berwickontweed #hidehill #ord #purvis #tailoringbusiness #historyoftailoring #
Today we celebrate Cosprop’s 60th birthday and no item could be more appropriate for a post: This beaded velvet and chiffon bodice is the first original item of clothing John Bright ever bought - on a visit to Paris in 1958 at Clignancourt flea market. The visit and this find influenced his decision to choose costume over a career in fashion and eventually led to the foundation of Cosprop that we are celebrating today. Currently it is part of our exhibition ‘Costume Couture’ at @fashiontextilemuseum #1890sbodice #sequins #fashionexhibition #historyofdress #historyoffashion #costumecollection #anniversary #companyanniversary #fashionexhibition #costumecollection #fashionandtextilemuseum
Our historic collection team has interrupted its usual work to help @juliabuckmiller mount star pieces from Cosprop’s most famous productions for ‘Costume Couture -Sixty Years of Cosprop’ @fashiontextilemuseum that opened today! Don’t miss the chance to see this lovely exhibition! Our collection team @barbara.kloos@annie_does_costume and @foleydressed will now return to their normal duties, including posting more on this account. Apologies for our recent absence! We thoroughly enjoyed the project and would like to thank the curator @tomasatsummerhill , @miawallden from Cosprop, who assisted him and John Bright in the curation, and the lovely team at the Fashion and Textile museum! #costumecouture #fashionandtextilemuseum #costumemounting #johnbrightcollection #filmcostume #hollywoodcostume #newexhibition #londonexhibition #fashionexhibition #costumeexhibition #behindthescenes #exhibitionsetup #costumedesign
Barbara, curator of the John Bright Collection, explains how collaborating with the Uncovering Dressmakers will connect dress history research!
#uncoveringdressmakers #historyoffashion #whomadeyourclothes #history #nineteenthcenturyfashion #vintagelabels #historyofdress #victorianfashion #victoriandressmaker #madameclapham @hull_museums
