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Tuesday 29 July 2014

Bath Fashion Museum (photo heavy!)

We went traipsing all over Cornwall and Devon a couple of months ago but our first stop took us to the very beautiful City of Bath. We loved this place (I'll no doubt have another post on that) but today I just wanted to show you some of the many photos I took from the fashion museum there. I was a bit obsessed with the place if I'm honest as I do love fashion and the opportunity to look at the styles women (and men) wore from the 18th century right up until today was fairly wonderful. I'll mostly let the photos do the talking here cause there are many of them but I took notes on all the different styles so I'll add in a few bits as we go along!

Woman's open robe & petticoat, man's hand embroidered coat (1720), red evening silk damask gown (1750), Brocaded floral silk robe (1780's), yellow woven silk damask gown (1740).
Distinctive bell-shaped skirt from the Georgian period on the left, beautiful black floral number that I annoyingly took no details for. Doh. Sack back dress there on the end, at the time considered an extremely graceful look for women (18th century).
Getting a bit more Austen-y. Mmm, Darcy.
Crazy ass (literally) dresses called 'women's court mantua'. Designed using super fancy silks with the purpose being to look as extravagant as possible. 
Slight turn to the dark side with some late Victorian frocks.
Getting more modern now, going from the 20's up to the 50's..
more 50's, 60's, 80's power dressing, 90's.
These were Princess Diana's 80's dresses. The walls were covered in sketches the designer had drawn for her outfits too, which was quite cool.
Wedding dresses. Serious swoonage at that beaded number on the end there.
Ball gowns, mostly 80's.
More recent ball gowns.
The Dress of the Year' on the left apparently, created by Henry Holland. More previous dresses of the year, including that godawful Versace J-Lo palm print yoke and some distinctly 70's looking gear.
A closer look at that 'dress of the year', and my two favourites in the entire place; last years dress of the year (Dior, swoon) and a rather beautiful glitzy number from the 70's that I think may be Biba.


There was of course a dressing up segment of the day so I went for a bit of Victoriana. Man, those dresses are heavy! Totally down with the bonnet though, perfect for an auld bad hair day. 

Anyone else as much of a ye olde timey fashion obsessive as myself? You really can't beat a bit of vintage!
XX


8 comments:

  1. Loved this post! The Dress of the Year is.......yeah. Not my cup of tea! Those Victorian ones are unreal, they scream Jack the Ripper and Lahhndon, such detail. You totally rock a bonnet, by the way.

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    1. No, I didn't like it either. All those black bits on it are pieces of tape. I was like "What? How?' etc. Thank you, I'm considering taking up bonnet wearing, it literally covered all of my hair. Amazing.

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  2. Lovely post. This would definitely be up my street. Especially the fact that you get to dress up!

    Claire

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    1. Oh god, any excuse with me to dress up, I practically squealed when I saw that section!!

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  3. Great post, Chloe. That middle wedding dress is stunning, as are most of the rest of them. Not sure about the Henry Holland Dress of the Year though.

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    1. No, I wasn't either. Not really my style- thought it looked a bit cheap to be honest!

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  4. Ooh this looks amazing! Fashion room in V&A is my favourite so I'll have to go to Bath to this museum! I know my Mum has been to the Newbridge one and liked it, another I must visit

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    1. I've never been to the V & A which saddens me greatly as I know I'd love it!! I've been to the newbridge one too- I did a blog post on it actually if you ant to look that up!

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