The Embellished exhibition at Provost Skene House, Aberdeen

We went along to an exhibition in Aberdeen a few weeks ago at Provost Skene's House, titled Embellished , it featured embroidered garments and accessories from their permanent collection. It was quite a small collection but there were some beautiful items including a wool Victorian walking suit with a Russian style braiding - see below.


Unfortunately, the lighting was an obstacle to getting very good images with my camera. 


You can see how the embroidery along the bottom of the skirt is very different in style and quality to the braiding on the cape and it is very possible that the braiding was a later addition.

One of my favourite pieces in the exhibition was the pink beaded 'Flapper' dress from around 1923-1924. I'm not sure if the photograph is of a high enough quality for you to be able to see the tiny glass beads that cover the entire dress and the decorative bands of bugle beads clustered at the right hip that sweep up towards the shoulder and waistline.

 I can only imagine what this must have looked like under the lights with all the tiny sparkles from the glass beads as the wearer maybe danced the Charleston or the Shimmy.

The blue dance dress (late 1950s) is a far more structured outfit, with a skirt made up of gored panels with inset fishtail sections, this added a fullness to the skirt, giving a very dramatic effect when dancing. The floral embroidery and Tambour work is enhanced with sequins and diamante stones.

Whilst it was a very small exhibition, it really helped me being able to see some of this work up close instead of just browsing the internet or pouring over the books. It wasn't just about the clothes as Provost Skene house has a lot of very interesting displays including recreated rooms with original artifacts.

In one room, there was a wooden four poster bed with a very pretty embroidered coverlet.

It wasn't just in the obvious textiles that took my interest, once I started looking around, even the ceilings, windows and flooring were photographed with a view to using them at a later stage.

Next exhibition for us will be the 'House of Annie Lennox' which I can't wait for.