The Fashion Museum Bath’s special exhibition for 2017 will be ‘Lace in Fashion’ (running from 4th February 2017 until 1st January 2018). Drawing on the riches of the museum’s collection, as well as generous loans from contemporary fashion designers, the exhibition will showcase over fifty exquisite pieces, showing how lace has been used in fashion from the time of Shakespeare to the present day.
The Exhibition Curator, Elly Summers, has been working painstakingly to catalogue the museum’s extensive collection of lace, dating from the 1500s to the present day, supported by a grant from the Arts Council England and assisted by expert volunteers from the Lace Guild. This research has uncovered many gems from the collection – for example, a lace dress made in 1805, which may be the only surviving dress worn by Queen Charlotte.
Global British luxury brand, Burberry, is loaning two looks from its Spring/Summer 2016 collections: a menswear look, including a lace caban and shirt, and a womenswear look, featuring a silk and lace dress. Other highlights will include a navy blue lace dress worn by Lea Seydoux in the James Bond film, Spectre, which has been loaned to the museum by Australian design duo, Lover, and a 1991 Karl Lagerfeld dress worn by 1990s supermodel, Linda Evangelista, in British Vogue, which celebrates its centenary in 2016.
Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones (Conservative, Lansdown), Cabinet Member for Economic Development at Bath and North East Somerset Council, said: “‘Lace in Fashion’ will showcase some of the rarest and most beautiful pieces from the Fashion Museum collection, and explore the fascinating history of lace. We are delighted that fashion designers, from the UK to Australia, are supporting the Fashion Museum by generously lending pieces for the exhibition.”
The oldest object in the exhibition will be a smock dating from 1580–1600 with Flemish bobbin lace on the sleeves and collar, which is one of the earliest pieces in the Fashion Museum’s collection. Another of the museum’s rarest treasures will also appear in the show: a silver tissue dress made from fine silk, woven with silver thread and trimmed with parchment lace, which dates from around 1660. This is a rare survival of parchment lace, a delicate fabric made using tiny strips of parchment or paper, wrapped in silk and incorporated into the design of the bobbin-made lace.
From the 1500s to 1700s, lace was a high-value fabric and a sign of prestige, mostly worn by royals and the aristocracy. There were two types of lace available – bobbin lace and needle lace, both of which were incredibly time consuming to produce, and required great levels of skill.
Mechanisation followed and by the end of the 1800s many people could afford to wear lace. New lace-making techniques appeared, including machine lace, chemical lace, tape lace and tatting. Examples of fashionable dress made using all of these techniques will be included in the show. Today, top designers such as Valentino and Alexander McQueen frequently use lace in their designs, and lace is popular in High Street fashions.
‘Lace in Fashion’ complements the Fashion Museum’s major exhibition, ‘A History of Fashion in 100 Objects’, which runs until 1st January 2019. Admission to both exhibitions is included in the Fashion Museum ticket.