Looking East
The inspiration behind the design: With it's puffed short sleeves, gathered bodice, high waist and long straight skirted outline I believe this is one of the most recognisably Regency dresses in the collection.
Image taken with secial permission from the Royal Pavilion, by Ray Sullivan
The gold and red wallpaper in the Music Room of The Royal Pavilion is truly stunning. Created by one of King George IV's chief decorators Frederick Crane. Though this was to be one of the dresses that was necessarily black the highlights applied to paper cut silhouettes at the time allowed for gold and so to reflect the grandeur of the design I was looking at for inspiration I chose to apply gold leaf to the skirt.
The tassels were designed to reflect the shape of the Oriental pagoda.
For the design of the trim on the sleeves and the necklace I chose a shape that reflected both the smaller leaves in the wall paper and the idea of oriental cherry blossom
These images show the process of translating the relevent imagery onto the paper tablecloth used in making the skirt
The young lady I associated with this dress, for the gathering before the ball of 1831, was Grace Gore, the 26 year old daughter of Lady Grace Gore. Please click here to read more about them both and about the ball.
You're welcome to have a look through this pile of photos showing work in progress.