Out Shopping: The Dresses of Marion and Maud Sambourne (1880 – 1910)
Evening gown of Maud Messel (née Sambourne) at Sambourne House. Photo: Birgitta Huse.
“The exhibition room with many frames, light curtains and passementerie on the walls is reminiscent of a reception room in a Victorian house”
“Maud’s evening coat exemplifies the influence of French designer Paul Poiret and the changes in silhouette in the early 20th century.”
Out Shopping: The Dresses of Marion and Maud Sambourne (1880 – 1910)
Leighton and Sambourne Museums exhibits rare surviving outfits
★★★★★
WRITTEN BY DR BIRGITTA HUSE, 24.03.2024
When entering the exhibition room at Leighton House it feels as if joining an event with some of the guests having arrived fashionably early. Nine dresses on mannequins build a group. Though it is impossible to capture the nature of this group completely at first sight, all dresses – or at least parts of them – are visible.
The exhibition Out Shopping – The Dresses of Marion and Maud Sambourne (1880 – 1910) convinces with pieces from the Sambourne House collection which are shown for the first time ever at Leighton House and in Sambourne House. Included are “rare surviving examples by leading – often female – dressmakers of the era” the museum explains.
The dark green formal afternoon outfit consisting of a velvet bodice and a train with silk skirt at the start of the exhibition was owned by Marion Sambourne, a married woman with two children. The piece was appropriate for daytime socialising and could well be the one which she bought in 1883 from Madame Bocquet, located at 66 Berners Street off Oxford Street. This outfit builds a prelude to further velvet and silk exhibits which were worn on different occasions by Marion Sambourne and her daughter Maud. Apart from everyday dress and party outfits, important stages of the lifecycle from wedding and pregnancy to mourning are represented.
Marion’s mourning outfit, the “black alpaca dress” appears fashionable with astrakhan collar, tassels and jet buttons. Following the rules of mourning in Victorian times these parts of the outfit suggest it’s use in a later period of mourning. The widespread idea that women of this era would always be seen in black is adjusted in the show. Maud’s crepe tea gown, which she probably wore as maternity dress, surprises in a beautifully light lilac colour.
Marion Sambourne’s mourning outfit, detail. Photo: Birgitta Huse
Maud Sambourne’s tea gown. Photo: Birgitta Huse.
The exhibition design invites to approach every display without glass coming in the way of the visitor’s experience. Forms, materials, and adorning details are within hand’s reach (please do suppress your wish to touch!) and enhance a feeling of closeness to the alleged guests of this reunion. Reflective surfaces and boards with introductions to the five sections of the display, from “Meeting Marion” to the final “Changing Times”, act as divisions of space between the individual dresses. At the same time the comparison of the different dress silhouettes is permitted as one walks around the centre of the room, looking at every dress from changing angles.
The exhibition room with many frames, light curtains and passementerie on the walls is reminiscent of a reception room in a Victorian house – though being of a much brighter colour scheme. The frames contain photos and letters which are mostly written and adorned with illustrations by Maud. Together with receipts from various dressmakers, these offer an informative and fascinating read and “paint an intimate picture of how fashion informed the distinct personalities of this middle-class mother and her affluent daughter”, so the museum team. What to wear and how to get hold of adequate dress was important. The motto “dress to impress” is far from being a new one.
Maud Sambourne’s illustration in one of her letters. Photo: Birgitta Huse
A lacquer table cabinet with sewing supplies is proof of mother’s and daughter’s textile working skills. The common practice of reusing boxes originally made for food storage in order to store smaller pieces of equipment was obviously also applied by the female Sambournes: a round French chocolate box serves as a container for small hooks.
Sewing utensils with round chocolate box. Photo: Birgitta Huse.
The last dress on show at Leighton House, Maud’s evening coat, exemplifies the influence of French designer Paul Poiret and the changes in silhouette in the early 20th century – “Changing times”. At this point the exhibition visitors are animated to make a change of location. Maud waves good-bye on a photo and invites us to continue the journey into her’s and her mother’s (dress) world at Sambourne House which is just a few minutes of a walk from Leighton House. Maud Messel’s (née Sambourne) brightly coloured velvet evening gown is another undoubted highlight which is not to be missed.
The film “Behind the Seams of Out Shopping” by Leighton House and Iron & Glass is shown at Sambourne House. London conservator Janie Lightfoot and her team provide insights into the complicated anatomy and restoration of some of the dresses they worked on for the exhibition in order to “make the dress strong enough for display on a mannequin”.
If you are interested in fashion history, textiles and Victorian women’s lives you need to visit Out Shopping: The Dresses of Marion and Maud Sambourne (1880 – 1910). If you are a fan of Victorian Punch Magazine and Edward Linley Sambourne you will also be able to get a first-hand impression of how the caricaturist’s wife and daughter acquired their dresses, dressed up and moved in Victorian society.
Out Shopping: The Dresses of Marion and Maud Sambourne (1880 – 1910) is on show at Leighton and Sambourne Museums until 20th October 2024.