{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O120386"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O120386/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BM6016/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BM6016/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2007BM6016","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Jacques Fath","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM6015","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Jacques Fath","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM6017","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Jacques Fath","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BM6014","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Jacques Fath","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O120386/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O120386","accessionNumber":"T.178&A-1974","objectType":"Wedding suit","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Lady Alexandra Howard-Johnston (1907-97) was the wife of the Naval Attaché to Paris at the end of the 1940s. She required an extensive wardrobe for the many formal dinners and state functions that she had to attend.\r\n\r\nA couture client would attend all the fashion collections, seated in the front row if she were especially important like Lady Alexandra. After the show, she would place her orders with her <i>vendeuse</i> (personal saleswoman). \r\n\r\nLady Alexandra dressed exclusively at the house of Jacques Fath (1912-54), and commissioned this dress from Jacques Fath shortly before he died, for her second marriage to Hugh Trevor-Roper (later Baron Dacre). She told Cecil Beaton, 'the dress made for my wedding to Hugh was made up on the wrong side of the material (my idea because the colour of the right side did not suit me) and that dress was worn and worn.'","physicalDescription":"Jacket and dress in pale brown worsted and cotton, figured with a spot pattern in gold gilt thread.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Jacques Fath","id":"A2145"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"worsted","id":"AAT227943"},{"text":"cotton","id":"AAT14067"},{"text":"baleen","id":"AAT192974"},{"text":"lurex","id":"x38249"},{"text":"nylon net","id":"x29761"},{"text":"cotton","id":"AAT183670"}],"techniques":[{"text":"weaving","id":"AAT53642"},{"text":"sewing","id":"AAT53658"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Worsted and cotton, figured with gold lurex thread, lined and boned","categories":[{"text":"Fashion","id":"THES48957"},{"text":"Womenswear","id":"THES49044"},{"text":"Marriage","id":"THES48921"},{"text":"Europeana Fashion Project","id":"THES265804"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&F","id":"THES48601"},"images":["2007BM6016","2007BM6015","2007BM6017","2007BM6014"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"010","id":"THES307601"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"010","id":"THES307601"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Dress","id":""}],[{"text":"Jacket","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Paris","id":"x29068"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1954","earliest":"1954-01-01","latest":"1954-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Lady Alexandra Trevor-Roper","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Circumference","value":"60","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"waist","note":""},{"dimension":"Circumference","value":"81","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"bust","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Stockman (UK Female) mannequin size 38","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Jacques Fath / Paris' [with emblem above]","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Label, machine woven, black on white"}],"objectHistory":"Lady Alexandra was married to Hugh Trevor-Roper in this Fath dress on October 4, 1954.\r\n\r\nThe dress is modest as this was her second marriage.  She had previously been married to Captain (later Rear-Admiral) Clarence Dinsmore Howard-Johnston, by whom she had had three children.","historicalContext":"Lady Trevor-Roper favoured designs by Jacques Fath for her wardrobe, and contributed the vast proportion of the V&A's Fath collection.","briefDescription":"Jacket and dress in pale brown worsted and cotton, designed by Jacques Fath, Paris, 1954","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Cecil Beaton gift Registered Papers, RP/1970/3752  F/5"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lynn, E., 'Lady Alexandra' in Wilcox, C., ed., <i>The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-57</i> (V&A Publications: 2007), p.172 and pl. 7.17"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Vickers, H., 'Cecil Beaton and his anthology of fashion', in Wilcox, C., ed., <i>The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-57</i> (V&A Publications: 2007), p. 165"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lady Alexandra Trevor-Roper's Memoirs (unpublished)\r\nIn the possession of Xenia Dennen (Lady Alexandra's daughter)\r\n\r\n[Eleri Lynn 17/07/06]"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Tatler, September 2007, p.142-3"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Haute couture","id":"THES48861"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Trevor-Roper, Hugh (Baron Dacre of Glanton)","id":"N4834"},{"text":"Beaton, Cecil","id":"N2787"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"LADY ALEXANDRA: A COUTURE CLIENT \r\n\r\nLady Alexandra Howard-Johnston (later Lady Dacre) was the wife of the Naval Attaché to Paris. She required an extensive wardrobe for the many formal dinners and state functions that she had to attend.\r\n\r\nA couture client would attend all the fashion collections, seated in the front row if she were especially important. After the show, she would place her orders with her personal vendeuse or saleswoman. A calico toile would be created, then the final garment, a process involving numerous time-consuming fittings.\r\n\r\nLady Alexandra dressed exclusively at Jacques Fath. The designer lent her evening and day dresses each season, aware of the publicity that this would give his house. 'If there was a Fath dress I wanted to keep, I could pay sale price at the end of the season. I was not allowed to go to any other couturier, but I did not want to - Fath was perfection.' \r\n\r\nDress and jacket\r\nJacques Fath (1912-54)\r\nParis\r\n1954\r\n\r\nLady Alexandra commissioned this dress from Jacques Fath, shortly before he died, for her second marriage to Hugh Trevor-Roper. She told Cecil Beaton, 'the dress made for my wedding to Hugh was made up on the wrong side of the material (my idea because the colour of the right side did not suit me) and that dress was worn and worn.' [61 words]\r\n\r\nWool and Lurex\r\n\r\n[Shown along with a photograph album showing the dress being worn at the wedding.  Lent by Lady Alexandra's daughter, Mrs. Xenia Dennen; also shown with some of the letters from the Registered Files RP/1970/3752 F/5]\r\n\r\nGiven by Lady Dacre\r\nV&A: T.178&A-1974","date":{"text":"22/09/2007","earliest":"2007-09-22","latest":"2007-09-22"}}],"partNumbers":["T.178-1974","T.178A-1974"],"accessionNumberNum":"178","accessionNumberPrefix":"T","accessionYear":1974,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Jacket","Dress"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2006-01-11","availableToBook":true}}