Today we have a beautiful new gown in the shop. It’s a wonderfully made and shaped gown that is very comfortable and flattering – like the best of late ’30s evening wear.

It has a nice, swishy skirt for dancing the night away with your personal Fred Astaire. The bodice is quite artful: wide straps (with bra keepers to keep your lingerie out of sight) descend into a sweetheart neckline, and rows of darts to shape the bustline from the sides. I’ve lightened the photo of the bodice so you can see the nice seaming. Modelled by Becky Lou.

 

 

From a wartime edition of “Needlewoman and Needlecraft”

An advert from World War two for the celluloid (early plastic) zippers, showing the same style as in the Peter Russell dress.

As expected, the dress is full of couture quality details like waist tapes and bra keepers with a silk georgette lining. It was a delight to turn it inside out and see how it’s been made. Black dresses hide their details but if it’s well made and well cut, of a good fabric you can see it in how the dress looks when its worn.

This gown, of obvious quality was made by an unfamiliar couturier, Peter Russell. You can see the label above (and it’s rare enough that I submitted it to the VFG’s label resource). Couturiers of this time tend to have woven silk labels that display their address. Very handy for dating! Even if the fabric, style and construction didn’t put this into the ’30s, the address does.

Here’s a little that I found out about Peter Russell – a contemporary of Molyneux, Russell was a London designer who opened his couture house in 1931 at 2 Carlos Place, Mayfair: the address on the label, and specialised in “sporty suits and simple gowns”. His preferred aesthetic was “functional elegance” – a very modern idea really, and something many of us still strive for.

Russell’s client list included members of royalty and high society ladies, and his designs were sold across the Commonwealth. In his spare time he enjoyed hunting and was described as being “macho” and “hot-tempered”, characteristics that lost him clients although his fashions were very sought after. He had a great eye for detail, and supervised every aspect of design even dyeing and printing fabrics for his twice-yearly collections. Personally, he was quite flamboyant, championing the revival of Edwardian styles in menswear in the ’50s with drainpipe trousers and red silk cummerbunds.

In 1942 he was one of the founding members of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, which aimed to produce and promote high quality British fashion for export, in competition with the Parisian couture houses as well as build the relationship with government and represent the industry’s interests.

In the late ’40s he showed his collection at Georges, in Melbourne’s Collins St and they started to produce some of his designs under his supervision. Then Georges asked him to design a collection of coronation gowns, for Australian women to wear for the upcoming coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and her royal tour – it was “colossally successful” and he must have enjoyed the experience because in 1953 he sold his London design house – the new owner and head designer, an Irish doctor renamed it ‘Michael’ after himself- and moved here, taking on a role as a fashion advisor/promoter for a local textile mill and living in an “attractive Spanish style house” in Ivanhoe, close enough for him to go hunting in Lilydale. It looks quite nice. Wonder if it’s still there?

The following year, however, Prestige Ltd announced that Mr Russell ‘has decided not to undertake fashion promotion of that company’s fabrics throughout Australia. They believe that the extent of the fashion trade In Australia is not yet great enough to warrant his continuous residence here, but that his interest in this trade would be better served by periodical visits as in the past.” (The Herald, 15 Apr 1954). So perhaps he returned to the UK?

It’s surprising this designer is not better known! I’ve found some images of his designs online and selected a few for a Pinterest board.

The Victoria and Albert museum have a 1937 Peter Russell in their collection – you can see it here.

This lovely dress is now available in the Melbourne shop or online from the webshop.