Evening dress
Liberty
Category
Costume
Date
1958
Materials
Silk, cotton and net
Measurements
1220 x 1320 mm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Dudmaston, Shropshire
NT 814580
Caption
As one of London’s most fashionable department stories since 1875, Liberty & Co. has always sought to keep up with the latest trends. After the end of the Second World War, when fabric rations started to lift, they began to emulate the opulent and voluminous silhouette of Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’. Rachel Hamilton-Russell, Lady Labouchere (1908–96), wore this rose-strewn ballgown, cut in the style of Dior, in 1958. It marked a return to a romantic and ultra-feminine style. Dior wrote of the silhouette: ‘I designed clothes for flower-like women, with rounded shoulders, full feminine busts, and hand-span waists above enormous spreading skirts.’ But the style symbolised something more: an end to austerity and the war’s restrictions on women’s fashion. Liberty purchased patterns from fashion houses and made them up in their workrooms, offering affordable alternatives to the designer labels. Their signature floral prints, which grew in popularity during the interwar years, were timeless fabrics with which to create luxurious gowns and evening dresses. Helen Antrobus
Summary
Evening dress in cream silk printed with full blown roses in pink, yellow and green. Fitted bodice, apron front over pleated skirt and bow to back. Hand and machine sewn, bodice straight across and swathed, shoulder straps, curved apron front over skirt, straight into bodice at front, pleated at back.
Provenance
Lady Labouchere collection.
Makers and roles
Liberty
References
Antrobus and Slocombe 2025: Helen Antrobus and Emma Slocombe, 100 Things to Wear: Fashion from the collections of the National Trust, National Trust 2025, p.187.