Evening coat
Category
Costume
Date
1930 - 1940
Materials
Silk, Cotton, Metal thread, Satin
Place of origin
Syria
Order this imageCollection
Greenway, Devon
NT 121821
Summary
Evening coat of woven black silk and cotton with a front opening featuring a gold stripe and with two gold Y-shaped motifs on the back embellished with hanging pendant motifs that have been stitched at the centre to create a mirrored design. The coat was tailored for author Agatha Christie (1890-1976) from a man's cloak known as an abaya and likely to have been woven in Syria. Originally, the abaya would have been constructed of three panels of woven fabric, stitched at the top to make a shoulder seam with an opening at the front and cuffs and embroidered along the top with triangles and vertical bands finishing in pendants(Vogelsang-Eastwood, 2019, pp. 39-50.). Reconstructed as a fitted coat, c. 1940, the original vertical orientation of the pattern has been reconfigured at the back to create a symmetrical design. Christie may have bought the fabric during one of her many archaeological field trips in the Middle East accompanying her husband Sir Max Mallowan (1904-1978) and recalled in her memoir Come tell me how you live? published in 1946. Christie wore the coat to the London premiere of her play, The Mousetrap, at the Ambassadors Theatre in November 1952. See also Christie's coat (NT 121822), also made from an abaya.
Exhibition history
Quest for Treasure - Searching for Lost Empires , National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan, 2013
References
Vogelsang-Eastwood 2019: Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Dressed with Distinction: Garments from Ottoman Syria (ex. cat.), Los Angeles 2019; venue: Fowler Museum at UCLA 2019 Christie, Agatha, 1890-1976 Come, tell me how you live 1946.