Afternoon suit
Designer
Lucile
(1863 - 1935)
c. 1913
Velvet and lace
Museum purchase
Object numberP93.15.2
The dancer Irene Castle, whom Lucile declared “the first of the moderns,” wore a version of this suit. Lucile fused masculine and feminine elements into a youthfully elegant style with a cutaway jacket inspired by nineteenth-century menswear and draped skirt panels that reveal a lace underlayer. The narrow skirt has a back slit and full-skirted petticoat that would have accommodated a dancer’s footwork. Castle was dressed by Lucile onstage and off; she proclaimed the designer “one of the most remarkable dress artists I had ever known.”
DescriptionAfternoon suit : beige lace long sleeve top with stand lace collar, ecru / beige velvet eight button cutaway jacket and matching floor length draped skirt with double braided knot waistbandCollections
Exhibitions