The Glamour of Bellville Sassoon

Elegant exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum celebrating the Bellville Sassoon couture house.

There were some beautiful clothes in this show dating from the 1950s to now. The house started off making debutant and ball dresses and the early dresses are very classically glamorous. It was fascinating to read who had lent these to the exhibition, almost a who’s who of the grand dames of the British aristocracy who had been bright young things when the items were bought in the 1950s.

The house has its own in house embroidery studio and many of the works had very fine embroidery and bead work which I love. It is great to see real craftsmanship in clothes. I was also interested to see that they had used painted fabrics in the 1970s.

My favourite outfit however was a lovely short dress from 2009 in turquoise crepe with white polka dots in a design of cross body frills. It sounds ornate but was actually a very simple light dress.

I loved the room of royal outfits and it was great to see Princess Diana’s iconic going away outfit but strange to see it in the same display of two dresses worn by the Duchess of Cornwall in the 1950s.

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