Acquired from Margaret Wicks

Label: ‘Manton Patrick Court Dressmaker 44 Baker St. W.’

The fashionable line at the end of the first decade of the 20^th Century, as represented here, is transitional between an emphasis upon the bust and hips, with a small waist, associated with the Edwardian era, and a slimmer vertical silhouette with a raised waistline that harked back to the Regency styles of the early 19^th Century. The dress follows and defines the curves of the body, but remains unbroken in line from just below the bust to the hem at the front, sweeping down and out at the back where the eye is lead downwards by a band of embroidery that culminates in three tassels below the natural waist level.

Madame Alice Manton Patrick, who made the dress, and her client were clearly influenced by contemporary garments produced in an artistic style in the workrooms of the department store Liberty; this is evident in its subtle colouring and its relative simplicity, ornamented solely with bands of satin stitch embroidery worked in self-coloured silk with a design of highly stylised and flattened foliage and berries on a meandering stem. An example of a Liberty garment similarly decorated can be seen as a Related Item below.