Dress to Impress

Revealing Georgian Fashion: 1730 – 1780

19 Jun - 21 Nov 2010

Fairfax House
York

Dress to Impress is the first exhibition of its kind in York and reveals the sumptuous fabrics, skilled craftsmanship and elegant embroidered detail of costume from the mid-eighteenth century, 1730 to 1780. It explores the fashions and changing styles of this extravagant period and looks at how fashion was conveyed to the provinces.

Drawing upon collections from around Yorkshire including York Castle Museum, The Bowes Museum and Leeds Museums & Galleries, this exhibition brings together a range of superb men’s and women’s fashions including corsetry, shoes, exquisite fans and even headwear.

The exhibition showcases the elements of dress typically worn by the upper echelons of society, and using documentary evidence specifically reveals the clothing worn by the original inhabitants of Fairfax House, Viscount Fairfax and his daughter, during the 1760s.

On display throughout Fairfax House and in the museum’s special exhibition space, Dress to Impress leads the visitor through the house and offers the rare opportunity for these costumes to be viewed in their contextual setting.

Fairfax House Director, Hannah Phillip, explains: “As the northern centre for Georgian ‘polite society’ and social arena for members of the aristocracy and gentry, York played host during the winter season to a round of operas, balls, assemblies and private parties. Dressing to impress one’s neighbours, friends and peers at such social gatherings was a necessity not an option.

The detailing and craftsmanship of this period is second to none. As curator of this exhibition, it has been a privilege to be working with these costumes and to have the opportunity to bring them to the attention of our visitors. It is such an evocative period, pre-French revolution and the introduction of the simplified empire line style of dress, when fashion was about rococo splendour, exquisite silks, ornamentation, intricate detailing and above all else creating the right shape. In some ways it was also quite a daring period with very low cut décolletage being the fashion of the day.”

Dress to Impress presents another facet to Georgian domestic life in a townhouse previously unexplored at Fairfax House. Admission to the museum also includes entry to the exhibition and cost £6.00 (concessions £5.00).