30/06/2026
SPITALFIELDS SILK IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS
Continuing from my post a few days ago about Catherine Gray's early 18th century gown made from Spitalfields "bizarre silk" brocade dated to 1706/7.
When I mounted the gown last year for display during Historylinks Museum, Dornoch, Sutherland's Fibre Fest, the goal was to connect the gown with a young woman Katy Saunders who wore it to a fancy dress party in the 1870s. Katy was Catherine Gray's great-great-granddaughter. She did not have children so she choose to pass Catherine's gown to her first cousin, Spencer - and it was then passed on by Spencer's second wife Gladys directly to Spencer's great-granddaughter, Barbara (the current owner), when Barbara turned 16. Barbara and I wanted to display the dress in a way that drew inspiration from a photo taken of Katy wearing the dress during the late 19th century. By that time, the gown had been substantially altered into a 1870s style and silhouette, either by Katy herself or (more likely) a dressmaker on her behalf.
The 1870s silhouette created by the way the gown's bodice and skirts have been re-configured. After some research and experimentation, I settled on a 3-piece ensemble of support garments, as follows:
1. The key component - a conservatively shaped hooped petticoat in the "Early Bustle Period" style. I purchased this ready made. It's constructed of a nice quality cotton sheeting/poplin, with flat steel bones, metal grommets and cotton lacing/ties.
2. A padded rump to support the back waist of the hooped petticoat. I felt this was needed as a precautionary measure, to ensure the petticoat did not cave in or slip down in the back. I used the Scroops "Frances" pattern to make this rump, of white linen canvas from Burnley & Trowbridge Company, stuffed with clean wool roving.
3. A silk taffeta petticoat to go over the support and complement the gown. I made a to-scale replica of an 1873-1875 petticoat in the V&A Museum's collection (photos, pattern and construction details published by The The school of historical dress in the 2022 edition of Patterns of Fashion 2), using silk purchased from Pongees. The key considerations here were (a) create sufficient volume in the centre back with dense stiff pleating, and (b) shape the hem so that it sat shorter than the gown in the front but longer in the back to sit between the 300+ year old brocade and any floor surface. This is why the petticoat is noticeably long and visible in the back - it's both rest and shield for the antique gown.
Last year, my own mid-18th century lace-trimmed shift was pressed into duty for this display, as a nod to the full white blouse with neck ruff that Katy Saunders wore with the gown in the photo. This year, the gown has gone onto display for a longer period, without the photo of Katy Saunders nearby, and my shift was not available to use. So I made a stomacher piece in the same silk taffeta as the petticoat, to fill in the centre gap in the bodice on the mannequin.
Dressing the mannequin revealed how much smaller the mannequin is than the women who have worn the gown in the past! So after carefully installing all the layers, they all had to come off again for me to pad up the waist area, before re-installing everything and then carefully mounting the gown over the top.
So many factors come into play when preparing an antique for display - from appropriate materials and patterns, timeframes and budgets, to careful consideration of what the garment needs for it to be displayed safely and to effectively engage with visitors looking at it. Every time I work with an exquisite object like this dress, I approach it afresh as if for the first time, assessing condition and checking how things go together, never taking anything for granted or doing things the same way again out of 'habit'.
