Extravagance and Excess at the Walker

You wait ages to see a costume exhibition, and then two come along at once! Next year is the 150th anniversary of the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and the celebrations are starting early with this exhibition looking at fashions from the decade when the gallery opened.

Part of the exhibition

There are 11 outfits on display; 10 female and one male. Sadly, the combination of dark cloth and reflections from the glass cases made the latter impossible to photograph, but then this blog doesn't really concern itself with men's clothing.

As ever with costume exhibitions at the Walker, the mannequins are arranged to give good all-round views - especially important for an era when the bustle was a major element of an outfit.

Backs visible as well as fronts

That said, one of the most interesting (to me, at least) outfits was the least fancy. This printed cotton house dress would have been worn in the morning to attend to chores - which could be cleaning or just correspondence, depending on how many staff the household was able to employ. Such dresses were often cut up for reuse, making this one a rare survivor.

House dress, 1875-80

Wedding dresses, such as this one, were far more likely to be kept. They also have the advantage for museum curators of being tied to an exact date.

Silk satin wedding dress, 1875

Back view

Not all brides wore white; a darker dress which could be worn again was a popular and thrifty choice.

Corded silk and silk satin wedding dress

The wedding took place on 20 December 1877

A lot of the dresses on display are lavishly trimmed and have asymmetrical bustles, with some carrying the asymmetry on to the front as well. This day dress however is far more restrained.

Corded silk day dress, 1875-78

One thing which it does have, along with several other dresses in the exhibition, is a pocket. Which tied in nicely with my observation about costumes in the Cosprop exhibition being made as 'real' clothes.

Lots of pockets

As well as wedding dresses, there are a couple of mourning dresses in the exhibition. I was amazed that these were in such good condition, given that the substances used to make black and purple dyes at the time were not conducive to the long life of silk.

Silk and lace mourning afternoon dress

The exhibition also includes reproductions of some cartes de visite in the museum's collection, showing these fashions being worn.

Some of the cartes de visite

The most extravagant dress in the exhibition is also the oldest. It dates from around 1870, and the skirt shape still shows a little echo of the cage crinoline era.

Moiré and corded silk afternoon dress

The amount of work which must have gone into making and applying all those trims does not bear thinking about.

So much piping and edging

It belonged to the wife of a wealthy industrialist, who could not only afford such ornate clothes but probably also required them as a demonstration of the family's wealth. If this was a day dress, the mind boggles at what her evening dresses must have looked like.

Ornate sleeve detail

'Less is more' clearly doesn't apply here!

While I have no intention of ever trying to make anything that ornate, the exhibition did make me think that I should resurrect my 1874 pattern project. Once I have finished my currently stalled 1915 project, of course!

Extravagance and Excess: Fashion in the 1870s runs until 9 Apr 2027, and is free to visit.

Illness intervenes

By and large, I write my blog posts on Sundays as well as publish them. It's a routine I've got into, and it serves me well. But it does leave me at the mercy of last-minute events. Case in point - today I was all set to write a blog post about a new (and very squirrelly) project I have begun, but then I developed a migraine. So instead, it's a short progress report on my Shropshire Lass shawl and then bed.

I took the shawl with me on my recent trip north, expecting to work on it during the evenings. What I hadn’t taken into account was just how absurdly busy Edinburgh is these days, even in October. There was one day when the crowds in my birthplace were really getting me down, so I went back to the hotel, grabbed my knitting bag, and sought refuge in the calm of the West Port Garden.

Knitting in peace and late autumn sun

There's not a lot to show, really, as the first part of the shawl is a repeated lace motif.

Agnes shawl, images © Kath Andrews Designs

As ever, I started on straight needles. And, for reasons which escape me, chose to make stitch counting 'easier' by splitting the pattern sections into three with markers.

Why?

This enabled me to tell when I'd made a mistake (usually forgetting a yarnover), but not where I'd made it. And as I already knew from my Dahlia shawl, undoing lace knitting is not fun. Eventually sanity prevailed and I placed a marker at the end of each motif. Yes, I have to stop and count after every eight stitches, but this is still quicker and less stressful than trying to undo a double-decrease stitch.

S2kpo - the stuff of unpicking nightmares

Proving that I do, sometimes, learn from my mistakes, I did at least remember to transfer onto a cable needle before I reached any sort of stitches-falling-off-the needle crisis.

The joys of common sense

I have just completed my first colour change. For now it looks fairly subtle, but it may become more obvious once I have knitted a few more rows.

From one red to another

Finding out will have to wait until tomorrow, as lace knitting and migraines really do not mix!

Cosprop at the Dovecot

Once again, Dovecot Studios has come to my rescue. I was hugely disappointed to miss Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop when it was shown in London, but it was simply impossible for me to travel at the time. So when I discovered that it, like the Biba exhibition, was coming to Edinburgh - well of course I made another trip up north.

A Room with a View, 1985

It did not disappoint.

Some of the costumes on display

Founded by John Bright, Cosprop is a major costume house with a collection of over one million costumes and accessories. As well as making costumes, it holds a collection of over 8,000 original garments which are used for design inspiration.

More of the costumes on display

Bright trained in fashion design, and worked in theatre. He began buying antique clothing in the 1950s, initially from Paris flea markets and then in London. These pieces formed the start of the Cosprop collection.

Victorian bodice, one of Bright's earliest acquisitions

The costumes in the exhibition reflect the changes in film and television over the six decades. At the start, television had not moved to filming in colour, so an understanding of how a garment would appear in black and white was important.

Miss Havisham's wedding dress, Great Expectations, 1967

The standards expected in costume design also changed over time. The embroidery and sequins on this suit are painted on.

War and Peace, 1972

Now, costumes now may use pieces of original textiles such as this purple waistcoat, or be embroidered from scratch.

Napoleon, 2023

Jefferson in Paris, 1995

In the early days at least, some productions used original clothing.

1850s dress, The Europeans, 1979

Now if an item is required which is not in stock, it is handmade by Cosprop's team of 40 staff. A section of the exhibition shows some of the work involved.

Making an 1840s straw bonnet

Used in Jane Eyre, 2011

The exhibits are grouped by the film/programme in which they were used.

Pride and Prejudice, 1995

Howard's End, 1992

Jefferson in Paris, 1995

Tulip Fever, 2017

Not all of the items were for humans - this hat was worn by a cat in the 2021 film, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain.

With the illustration which inspired it

Around half of the exhibits are arranged so that it's possible to see the back as well as the front of the costume.

The Golden Bowl, 2000

Sometimes, more than one version of a costume has to be made. For example, if the script calls for it to be damaged in some way.

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, 2022

While particularly well-known costumes may be removed from stock and used for exhibiting, most are reused. This dress shows signs of having been altered to fit different wearers.

The Bostonians, 1984

The skills involved in making the costumes are astonishing, for example the straw work on this 1790s wedding dress.

Sense and Sensibility, 1995

The details extend even to parts of the garment which may not appear on screen. I shall have to watch the film again to check, but I'm fairly sure that the train of Marianne's wedding dress isn't shown. And yet, it too has intricate straw work.

Straw and silk trimming on the train

It all ties in with John Bright's original vision for Cosprop that these should be clothes that people would actually wear, not costumes. A perfect example of this for me was in two costumes from the 1979 film Tess.

Peignoir and travelling ensemble, both 1880s

Both garments have pockets. It's a very long time since I saw this film, but I doubt if either pocket is actually used at any point. Nor were many audience members likely to spot them, or regard a lack of pockets as historically inaccurate. But their existence helps to make the garments more real for the actor wearing them.

It's got pockets

As a costume drama fan, I recognised a great many of the ensembles. But there was one which I particularly wanted to see.

Out of Africa, 1985

I remember being smitten by Karen Blixen's wedding suit when I saw the film with Mum, so was delighted to be able to study it up close.

One of many detail shots I took

I usually go round costume exhibitions on my own, but this time I had company. Even better, company who also sews! My friend Debi, Ms1940McCall, lives in Edinburgh and had already seen the exhibition - but she was happy to see it again. Being able to nerd out over details with a fellow sewist was a rare and wonderful treat.

With the fabulously-dressed Debi

Costume Couture runs until 16 January 2027.

An end and a beginning

It turns out that the lure of a new project to start is a great incentive to finish the current one: despite having taken seven weeks to complete three-quarters of my latest Close to You shawl, I polished off the last quarter in a couple of days. I had enough yarn to complete two more pattern repeats and still do a picot edging.

The finished shawl

Being worn

The more I knit, the more I realise just what a clever pattern Close to You is, especially for a lever knitter like me. Triangular or crescent shawls usually start at the top centre and work out. By the end, the rows can be very long; the final rows on my Lothian were almost 500 stitches.

Knitting a top-down triangular shawl

As a result, it wasn't something I could pick up and just do an odd row in a spare five minutes. Because I'm not yet a good enough knitter to stop mid-row, for me it became very much Appointment Knitting. In Close to You, which is by the same designer, the length is achieved by rows of knitting. Even with the extra pattern repeats, I only had 160 stitches in the final row.

Knitting Close to You

As a result, it's easy to do on straight needles, and also possible to sneak in a cheeky row or two while waiting for a cup of tea to brew. But the edging keeps it interesting, while not being too complex. Perfect. (This isn't an affiliated post, just the observations of a happy knitter.)

But after saying all that, I will be back to Appointment Knitting with my Shropshire Lass shawl, which I started as soon as the Close to You was blocking. Not only is it a top-down triangle, but it's lace knitting as well. Because I'm using a different wool from the one recommended, I knitted a swatch to make sure that I had the right needle size. The tension was fine, but my motif positioning was very off in places.

So many mistakes

I had decided to have a go at knitting from the chart for a change, and it just confirmed by belief that I should stick to following written instructions! So far, this choice is working well.

Far better

The shawl has an outer edge and centre spine of garter stitch, and uses four stitch markers to separate these from the lace element. Usually I prefer plain round stitch markers, but thank you to whoever it was (sorry, I've forgotten) who explained to me that markers with something hanging off them are better at staying in place when yarnovers are involved. This gives me an excuse to use this cute, if not entirely appropriate, set from Coastal Colours.

Shells and sea glass to mark Shropshire's maritime heritage - or not!

It’s early days yet, but I’m enjoying watching the pattern grow.