Dress worn by Queen Alexandra

This light summer dress was worn by Queen Alexandra, consort of Edward VII. The dress is in the half-mourning colours of white and mauve. The dress has small hooks attached inside around the neckline. These may have been used to attach an additional piece of lace to cover the area up to the neck.

The dress was given to the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection by the granddaughter of a woman who had been a Lady in Waiting to Queen Alexandra. The dress is thought to have been worn at Ascot, and came with the story that it had been worn to the first Ascot attended by Queen Alexandra after the Edward VII's death in 1910. However, this does not seem possible, as the June 1910 event is known as Black Ascot, as full black mourning dress was observed. As this dress is in half-mourning style, it was probably worn in a subsequent year.

Victorian and Edwardian mourning etiquette required three stages of mourning clothing for women, following a bereavement. The initial stages required dressing completely in black, then more muted shades including mauve were adopted in the later stages of half-mourning. Queen Alexandra had a close association with mourning fashions, as she wore muted shades of mauve, grey, white and black, consistently following the death of her eldest son Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, in 1892.