Open robe dress

The dress holds a special place and significance in the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection as it was the first object to be catalogued after the collection was formed in 1978.

The dress is an 1840s-style court dress, but with design features of 18th-century clothing. The fitted bodice with triangular stomacher, flounced half-sleeves, ruched ribbon trimmed neckline and open robe front, displaying a quilted petticoat beneath, are all features of Georgian fashion. The dress is also made from repurposed mid-18th century Spitalfields silk.

The early provenance of the dress is not known, but the design and the material suggest that the dress may have been made to be worn Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's second costume ball, called the 'Bal Poudré' ('Powder ball'- a reference to the powdered wigs worn in the 18th century). It was held at Buckingham Palace in 1845, and required guests to dress in the fashion of one hundred years before, 1745.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert held three costume balls in 1842, 1845 and 1851. These were organised to encourage guests to order new clothes, in the hope of stimulating the declining Spitalfields silk industry. However, despite the fact the 1845 ball was organised to encourage trade, some guests may have remade original 18th-century clothes, to avoid the expense of commissioning new clothes. This dress may be an example of this re-use.