Fashion Museum, Bath - A History of Fashion in 100 Objects

Whilst at the Bath Fashion Museum we looked at their new exhibition; A History of Fashion in 100 Objects.  Looking at these 100 items in this collection they show the story of fashions development from the 1600's until the present day.  This dress to the left is a Georgian design that would have been seen worn by the women of Bath during the mid 1700's.  What I found surprising about this dress is the striking yellow colour of the fabric.  I would have thought that this was too bright a colour for the period and would have been a hard colour to make.  

The dresses below look much more like the Robe a La Fransaise's that were typical of the period.  The decoration on these dresses, particularly the first white dress, is very fine and small which shows the wealth of the wearer as it would all have been done by hand.  

This yellow cotton dress of 1800 has been decorated with the Paisley Print that was very popular during the Regency period.  This dress is the complete opposite of the dresses above showing the sudden change in direction that fashion went in half a century.  These dresses below would have been made and worn during the 1880's and 1890's.  It was during the Victorian period that new dyes and making processes were being developed and so people were able to play with their clothes and the colours became darker and more varied.  I find that the dresses of this period appear very busy with a lot of decoration and frills appearing around the cuffs, neck and base of the skirt.  

 This dress from 1903 would probably have been worn for an evening party and includes lots of decoration.  As this dress includes several metres of fabric and much embroidery it would have cost an awful lot of money and would have been used a status symbol for the Lady to show to her friends.  The silhouette of the dress is typical of the Edwardian era and highlights the females waist and accentuates the curves created by the tight corset worn underneath.