london society fashion · !

London Socie! Fashion1905 1925

THE WARDROBE OF HEATHER FIRBANK

NAME OF AUTHOR NAMEV&A PUBLISHING

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First published by V&A Publishing, 2015 Victoria and Albert Museum South Kensington London !"7 2#$ www.vandapublishing.com

Distributed in North America by Harry N. Abrams Inc., New York © The Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2013 Text © Linda Parry, 2013

The author hereby asserts her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Hardback edition: %!&' 978 1 85177 732 7

Library of Congress Control Number 2012948902

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2016 2015 2014 2013

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers.

Every e(ort has been made to seek permission to reproduce those images whose copyright does not reside with the V&A, and we are grateful to the individuals and institutions who have assisted in this task. Any omissions are entirely unintentional, and the details should be addressed to V&A Publishing.

Designer: Dalrymple Copy-editor: Linda Schofield Indexer: Christine Shuttleworth

Jacket illustration: detail of Cat.62. Wandle, printed cotton. Designed Morris, registered 28 July 1884. V&A: T.45–1912

Endpapers: detail of pl.42. Length of Wandle printed cotton after indigo blue dyeing and discharging and before other colours were printed. V&A: Circ.427–1953

Frontispiece: detail of pl.56. Original design in watercolour and pencil for Bird double cloth, 1878. William Morris Society, Kelmscott House

V&A Photography by James Stevenson and the V&A Photographic Studio

Printed in China

) Introduction 00

* A Splendid Crescendo of Luxury 1901–8 00

+ Discretions, Indiscretions and Nonconformity In Society London 1910–14 00

, Wartime and After: A Retreat from Society 1914–24 00

- Heather Firbank and London’s Couture Industry 00

. Conclusion 00

Appendix: Heather Firbank Garments in /0 Collections 00

Notes 00

Further Reading 00

Index 00

london society fashion · #introduction · $

V&A’s collections, the trunks of remaining clothes began a tour of /0 museums. Pieces were acquired by the Gallery of English Costume in Manchester, Nottingham Museum and Leicester Museum. Re-markably, what was taken in by museums at this time – almost 250 items – was only half of what survived from this 20-year period of Heather’s life and the remaining items from Heather’s wardrobe were sold by her great-nieces in 1974 at an auction at Christie’s.1 At this sale garments and accessories were acquired by the London Museum (now the Museum of Lon-don), Northampton Museum and again Nottingham Museum.2 Numerous other items of dress were sold into private ownership, some to be used as props in stage and film productions. A selection of Heather’s hats were sold to Hollywood actress Britt Ekland. Lot 247, ‘A sketch book of dress designs, by Miss Firbank, pencil dated “January and February 1913”’, acquired by ‘Nicholson’, is perhaps the most frustrat-ing loss in terms of piecing together Heather’s rela-tionship with her clothes.3 Despite the richness of what was o(ered for sale and to museums – over 400 pieces from a period of just 20 years – these numer-ous surviving garments still do not represent all that Heather owned and wore at this time. Many more items of dress from the 1910s and 1920s that do not correspond with items sold or o(ered to museums are listed in surviving dressmakers’ bills, providing a glimpse of just how large her total wardrobe would have been. [45662]

The collection at the V&A has been used ex-tensively since its acquisition in 1957. Items from Heather’s wardrobe have appeared in every single permanent display in the fashion galleries since they opened in 1962. Several pieces from the collection formed the basis of a touring exhibition entitled ‘Ed-wardian Elegance’ which was loaned by the Muse-um’s (now defunct) Circulation Department 21 times in four years to venues all across the /0 . Heather’s exceptional hats were shown in the exhibition ‘Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones’ and photographs of her clothes have featured in numerous publications.

2 Photograph of V&A exhibition A Lady of Fashion: Heather Firbank and What She Wore between 1908 and 1921, London, 1960v%a: heather firbank archive

3 Photograph of Audrey Hepburn wearing a Cecil Beaton costume designed for the film My Fair Lady, Cecil Beaton, place?, 1964, source?

4 Photograph of actress Ann Firbank (a distant relative of the Firbank family) wearing V&A: T.34–1960, Cecil Beaton, London, 1962national portrait gallery, london

london society fashion · &&introduction · &'

5 Photograph of Miss Heather Firbank, probably Lallie Charles, London, c.1908v%a: heather firbank archive

The most focused use of the V&A collection to date, however, was the exhibition of Heather’s clothing staged just after it was acquired, in 1960. Entitled A Lady of Fashion: Heather Firbank and What She Wore between 1908 and 1921, this was the first major display of twentieth-century fashionable dress to be held at the V&A. Although many in the Museum had to be convinced that this was a worthwhile subject, the exhibition was a huge success and its run was ex-tended to accommodate the demand from visitors.7 A Lady of Fashion, curated by Madeleine Ginsburg, drew attention to the appeal of fashionable dress for the Museum and deserves to be acknowledged alongside Cecil Beaton’s ‘Fashion and Anthology’ in 1971 for its role in putting fashion ‘on the map’ at the V&A. [45003]

In keeping with the Museum’s original purpose as a resource for research and an inspiration for designers, items of Heather’s clothing which are not on display have been studied by historians and contemporary designers alike. Most notably, influ-ences from the collection, which was photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1960, can be seen in his costume designs for the 1964 film My Fair Lady. [45004] Despite this extensive use, during the more than 50-year history of Heather’s clothes at the Museum what has remained neglected is the story of Heather’s life. Until now, very little has been known about the wealthy, stylish woman who wore these clothes and it is our intention to remedy that situation. With the added archive of photographs, letters and account books generously shared by Heather’s last surviving descendant, her great-niece Johanna Firbank, we aim to reunite the clothes with the fascinating untold bi-ography of their wearer, celebrating the central role of fashion in Heather’s thoughtful and bold creation of her personal identity.

revealing heather’s story

The story of the Firbank family is a classic tale of nineteenth-century social mobility. In just two gener-ations they moved from coal mining in County Dur-ham to being part of London’s moneyed elite. Thanks to the fortune accumulated by her grandfather Joseph Firbank, who left mining to work as a contractor in the development of the railways, Heather was born into a wealthy, respectable London family. Her mother’s titled background meant that she had every right to be part of the social world of the aristocracy. Heather Firbank was launched as a young debutante, with all the promise of a privileged future as a mar-ried aristocrat and society hostess that this implied. However, her life took a very di(erent turn. The loss of the family’s wealth and a scandalous love a(air in her early twenties had a profound impact on her options. She never married and spent her later life moving between hotels and women’s clubs.

Through all of this Heather was a keen follower of fashion. She was an avid reader of fashion fea-tures in magazines and newspapers and, being tall, slender and attractive, was the ideal model for the exquisite and expensive garments she purchased. Significant changes in fashion, including a move from the separate pouched bodices and skirts of 1901–7 to the one-piece increasingly slimline dresses of 1908–12, the importance of the tailored costume and separate blouse and skirt, and finally the loss of all boning and shape in the simpler garments of the 1920s, are reflected the clothes which survive. Heather’s taste was refined and largely restrained. She favoured pared-down garments in mauve and purple hues, made by a select group of the very best dressmakers and tailors and purchased almost ex-clusively in London. Although her wardrobe forms a cohesive and recognizable whole, there are notable variations in her style. Girlish, slightly fussy garments survive from her adolescence (1905–7), more refined, pared-down, sophisticated garments from her early twenties (1908–10) and a group of alluring and re-fined gowns from her mid-twenties (1910–13). Less

london society fashion · &(introduction · &"

With the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901, Edward 8%% came to the throne, bringing with him an endorsement of all things fashionable. In his long service as Prince of Wales, Edward had built a reputation as a pleasure seeker. He and his friends, known as the Marlborough House Set after his Lon-don residence, were famous for their parties, while he and his wife, Alexandra, loved clothes, were leaders of taste and spent considerable time and money on their wardrobes. The new era was highly fashion-conscious, with an increased emphasis on feminine pastel colours and delicate textiles. However, though lighter in appearance, women’s dresses remained built over a restrictive foundation of corsetry that reached from under the bust to the hips, forcing bod-ies into the forward tilt of an ‘S’ bend.

Heather Firbank was 13 at the coronation of Ed-ward 8%% in 1902. The most fashionable period of her life was to be played out in the years that followed, up to the First World War. This was a time later vividly described by the society restaurateur and interior designer Marcel Boulestin: ‘Those years, 1908–1911, seem to have a certain historical value as the prelude to a new era, like a splendid crescendo of luxury, pleasure, happiness, artistic glory, opening with the glow of the Coronation and finishing fortissimo in August 1914 when the first guns sounded the knell of civilisation.’9

childhood and the firbank family

Although often seen as a period which broke down many of the social barriers of the Victorian era, the early twentieth century remained bound by a strict hierarchy, and an individual’s status was still meas-ured by family background and wealth. Understand-ing the Firbanks’ social standing is crucial to placing

Heather and her surviving garments in their context.Heather was a member of a wealthy upper-middle-

class London family whose fortune came from her grandfather Joseph Firbank, a railway contractor from a mining family in County Durham. Having made his fortune converting canals into railways in South Wales, Joseph was able to educate his son Joseph Thomas Firbank (known as Thomas) at Cheltenham College, a respected boys’ public school. Boosted by his upper-middle-class education, in 1883 Thomas Firbank married Harriette Jane Garrett, a member of the well-established and aristocratic Annesley family, who could trace their ancestry in Ireland back to Sir Francis Annesley, Baron Mountnorris and 1st Viscount Valentia (1585–1660). It was thanks to her mother’s and grandmother’s Anglo-Irish aristocratic connections that Heather was guaranteed her entrée into court circles. [45007]

Thomas and Harriette Firbank spent the first years of their married life living in fashionable Clarges Street in Mayfair, London, where their first two chil-dren were born, Joseph Sydney (‘Joey’, 30 September 1884) and Arthur Annesley Ronald (‘Artie’ or ‘Ron-ald’, 17 January 1886). Ronald Firbank, later a writer and playwright, is perhaps the best known of the family, becoming famous posthumously when his writings were republished in the 1930s. The family moved to the extensive Coopers estate in Chisle-hurst, Kent, in 1887, where two more children were born, Herbert Somerset (‘Bertie’, 27 May 1887) and Heather (‘Baby’ or ‘Lassie’, 27 August 1888). [45008]

In childhood photographs, Heather and her

2

A SPLENDID CRESCENDO OF LUXURY1905–1925

7 opposite Photograph of Miss Heather Firbank, Baron Adolph de Meyer, London, c.1909v%a: $a–&#)"

london society fashion · *&a splendid crescendo · *'

lesser-known dressmaker and was to be worn for an informal summer occasion such as a boating party. [45015] It is fashioned from lightweight cotton fab-ric, with a stylistic nod to nautical clothing in its blue and white stripes. We are able to date this as the earli-est of Heather’s surviving garments as the dress has a high neck and is formed of a separate bodice and skirt, as was the norm at the beginning of the century. Another slightly later dress of Heather’s made of a separate bodice and skirt but with a flat collar is kept at the Museum of London.9: Around 1907–8 bodices and skirts became joined at the waist and all of the later surviving day and evening dresses are made in this way. The shape of the boating dress is also in keeping with the mid-Edwardian fashion for a small waist and capacious bosom. The bodice closes at the back with a row of hooks and eyes and is made of several panels of fabric pulled in at the ‘V’-shaped waistband to create volume at the front, while a wide self-fabric belt covers the join at the waist. There is no boning in the bodice, but the fashionable high lace neckpiece is reinforced by five metal supports and closes tightly at the back with hooks and eyes. The skirt of the dress is pleated and would have been worn with a petticoat to add to its fullness. A beautifully intricate white cotton petticoat trimmed with pink ribbon shows how weight and volume were achieved with multiple layers of fabric and heavy trimmings. [45016]

As she prepared to ‘come out’ as a society woman, Heather’s interest in fashion intensified. From 1908 the collection contains fashion plates and press draw-ings almost obsessively cut out and kept from news-papers and women’s magazines, including numerous illustrations by Bessie Ascough from the women’s pages of daily newspapers, such as ‘For and About Women’ from the Evening Standard, ‘Of Interest to Women’ from the Daily Mail and features from peri-odicals such as the Queen, Sketch and Tatler among others. Although woman’s periodicals such as these had their roots in the early nineteenth century, the format came to prominence in the late nineteenth

15 Sketch and notes from Ideas and Fancies, paper and ink, Ronald Firbank, place?, c.1904courtesy of lord horder

16 Summer day dress, printed cotton trimmed with broderie anglaise, machine lace and pearl buttons, British, c.1905v%a: t.*&a-c–&#+'

17 opposite Petticoat, cotton, trimmed with machine embroidery, machine lace and silk ribbon, British, c.1906v%a: t.+)–&#+'

london society fashion · !!the social whirl · !*

28 Summer day dress, pink linen trimmed with machine lace and machine embroidery, British, c.1908v%a: t.**–&#+'

london society fashion · "#the social whirl · "$

41 Blouse, grey/mauve silk chi(on trimmed with silk fringe and decorative buttons, Mascotte, London, c.1912v%a: t.(+–&#+'

london society fashion · (&the social whirl · ('

necessary even at the time. [45045] Dresses for after-noon occasions such as visits to garden parties were full-length, had more intricate trimmings than day dresses and often had a slight train. Unlike evening dress, however, they had full – or half-length sleeves and high necks, and unlike tea gowns they were very structural garments. An afternoon dress would have been worn with a wide, elaborate hat and a parasol in the summer. For social highlights such as racing at Ascot and watching polo at the Ranelagh Club in south-west London, the elaboration of trimmings could be almost as extravagant as on evening wear.

Heather’s pale lilac silk dress, made by Mrs Pick-ett of the prestigious Savile Row, is a typical example of an afternoon dress. [45046] Its high neckline and elbow-length sleeves mark it out as appropriate for this time of day. The silk satin of the main garment is overlaid with a grey/lilac silk chi(on. A border of machine-embroidered net and four decorative but-tons on the chest are caught between these layers, casting the whole ensemble in a sort of soft-focus evocative of the ‘endless summer’ of the Edwardian era. The chi(on over-layer is parted at the front and gathered at two points at the rear, with the whole lot drawn into a decorative buckle at the back. The buckle is inspired by 1780s fashions, which were popular at the time.

evening dress

The type of dress worn in the evening had to be selected with care – as Margot Asquith had found to her cost. Dinner dresses would have a low-cut neckline (though not o( the shoulders) and often mid-length sleeves. Heather’s black silk velvet dress,

44 Cutting showing types of dresses for di(erent times of day from Les Modes, Paris, August 1910v%a: heather firbank archive

45 Detail showing silk label on Pickett afternoon dress, silk, Pickett, London, c.1909v%a: t.!!–&#+'

trimmings including gold embroidery, gold tissue, purple chi(on, silver lace and chinchilla fur. [45044]

afternoon dress

If a formal afternoon engagement had been arranged, another change was required out of one’s tea gown and into a more elaborate gown as an afternoon dress. These could come in many di;cult-to-define forms. A cutting from Heather’s collection showing labelled photographs of women wearing dresses for di(erent times of day suggests that guidelines were

1911 or 1912. Made by Lucile and by Mascotte, these were intended to be seen on informal occasions in the home, rather than be hidden under a tailored jacket worn for daytime visiting or shopping. [45041] The Mascotte example has a curved, flat collar of the sort that became known as the ‘Peter Pan collar’ after J.M. Barrie’s character (Peter Pan was first performed in 1904 and was published as a novel in 1911).

tea gowns

On a day without formal engagements, Heather may have stayed in her day dress or tailor-made until the late afternoon, when she would have worn a tea gown before changing again for dinner. Unfortunately, none of Heather’s tea gowns survive in museum collections. The tea gown was a highly specific and luxurious garment worn in the late afternoon or early evening when ‘at home’ or staying at a coun-try house. [45043] It was considered a necessity for wealthy women from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Less structured than dresses worn in public, it could be put on over a loosened corset and often had no internal sti(ening. However, it was still a highly decorative garment, full-length and usu-ally trimmed with a combination of lace, silk chif-fon, beading, fur and faux flowers and often with a train. In 1901 Lady’s Realm magazine described how women wore them in the following way: ‘ … at five o’clock they will don the picturesque tea gown and adopt an air of drooping languor which savours of mystery, while striking an Oriental note of passion and colour.’99

Although this garment is often seen as the epitome of Edwardian frivolity and luxury, Heather’s cuttings from fashion magazines show that it lived on well into the war years. One example in the Daily Mail of 1915 depicts two tea gowns alongside an article entitled ‘Good Temper Homes: How War Has Cured the Complaining Habit’. Shorter in length, in keep-ing with changing wartime fashions, they remained a luxurious item despite the austere climate, with

42 Cutting from the Evening Standard and St James’s Gazette showing illustration of a tea gown by Bessie Ascough, London, 11 September 1909v%a: heather firbank archive

43 Cutting from the Daily Mail, showing tea gowns, London, 1915v%a: heather firbank archive

london society fashion · (!the social whirl · (*

46 Afternoon dress, lilac silk with an overdress of lilac silk chi(on, trimmed with machine-embroidered net and machine lace, Pickett, London, c.1909v%a: t.!!–&#+'