Monday 4 October 2010

Tea and Corsets at a Costume Museum


Last week, I spent a really interesting and fun day with some writing friends at the historic Shambellie House just outside of Dumfries in the South of Scotland. It now houses the Museum of Costume, with clothes dating from the 1870s to 1950. With beautiful gardens, a small shop, basement cafe and an impressive Willow Lady statue in the grounds, there was plenty to see.

In the Accessories Room, we even got the chance to put on a corset. I gave up trying to get laced into one (over clothes!) and thankfully one of my slimmer friends modelled it beautifully for us. While the period rooms were of some interest, my favourite was the special exhibition of Marriage in the Movies, where we could view wedding dresses from different periods and films.

No prizes for guessing which dresses I headed towards. There were three Regency style dresses that were used in Jane Austen films. The one I remembered right away was the gorgeous dress Jennifer Ehle wore as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice - it's the one on the left. I even managed to buy a little book about fashion in Jane Austen’s day.

A great day was had by us all, not least because we’re an online group of writers who only get to meet up every few months. As you can imagine, there was as much talking as viewing!

Rosemary

1 comment:

Vikki said...

Great photos! I recognised Elizabeth's dress right away. Sounds like a fun day.