Court dress

This evening dress, lavishly embellished with silver bugle beads was worn by Lillian Wardman (nee Glascox) at her daughter Helen's court presentation ceremony in 1928. Lillian acted as her daughter's sponsor, at the time debutantes (the name given to single women presented at court) were required to be presented by an established member of society who was already married.

The dress, by the french fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin (1867-1946), is typical of 1920s fashion, straight-cut and falling to the knee. Fashions at that time adopted a boxy, androgynous shape, allowing more freedom of movement and breaking away from the structured, corseted restrictions of womens dress before the First World War. However, dress worn at Court required a sense of formality and tradition and strict guidelines had to be adhered to.

This dress is a good example of how both fashion and court regulations were cleverly interpreted to achieve a stunning design. The train on the dress was a requirement of ladies' court evening dresses, and each court had strict guidelines for the size and length of the train. The debutantes would decorate their hair with three small white feathers mounted as Prince of Wales plumes, and the ensemble was often completed with a fan of white ostrich feathers.