5 Amazing Historical Dresses

A lot has been written over the years about movie costumes and how in some cases the costume designers really try to recreate historical dresses, and yet in most cases no matter how beautiful and fitting the dress seems for the time period, once you dig deeper you realise that it was in fact not historically accurate. So instead of talking about movie dresses, we thought today we’d tell you about some pretty incredible historical dresses that have actually been made for some very wealthy and worn by them on special occasions. Many of these dresses are still kept in museums to preserve as works of art.

1. The Peacock Dress

This dress was made for Mary Curzon who was the Baroness of Kedleston to wear to the celebration of the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. It was designed by Jean-Philippe Worth personally for Baroness Curzon. The dress was made from chiffon fabric that was then embellished by gold and silver thread, and when we say golden we mean the metal, not just a golden coloured thread. It was then sent to Paris, France where it was styled into a two-piece dress that consisted of a bodice and a skirt. A long train that ended in roses made of chiffon was added in Paris too and then the dress was sent back to India. The overall effect was incredible. The golden and silver threads were hand-stitched in a pattern resembling peacock feathers and those green “eyes” that look like gems are actually made out of beetle wings. This dress is now kept in a museum in a glass case to help monitor the temperature and humidity around it in order to prevent it from getting ruined. Since the metal thread in the dress makes it not only heavy (it’s 4.5 kg) but also very susceptible to damage.