Medium: Gold lamé

Date: 1938

Country: USA

Credit: Gift of Mrs. Jefferson Patterson

With this dress, sisters Jessie Farquharson and Margaret Wheelock, a New York-based dressmaker team, captured the glamour and allure of 1930s Hollywood, when metallic "silver screen" evening fashions offered women a sparkling contrast to their more subdued and tailored daywear. Mrs. Jefferson Patterson, née Mary Marvin Breckinridge, donor of this dress, led a life worthy of a film heroine: the New York society girl traveled through Europe as a photojournalist and wartime radio newscaster before meeting and marrying a prominent diplomat.

Object Number: 82.151.113