“Pray put on your best suit of clothes you ever had in your life,” Josiah Wedgwood wrote in 1765, “and take the first opportunity of going to court.”
Those who did would find an overwhelming spectacle of silks, brocades, ruffles and diamonds, as those wanting to impress the Georgian royal court showed off their wealth and power through the medium of dress.
Times have changed, but by how much? An exhibition at Kensington Palace aims to show that the world of 18th-century aristocrats has more contemporary resonance than it might appear – particularly when it comes to fashion, display and power.
Alongside lavish outfits worn for show by Georgian high society, the exhibition includes some of the most spectacular garments sported by today’s celebrities.
Eighteenth-century history may not be widely known, notes Polly Putnam, the curator of collections at Historic Royal Palaces, but the court of the time offered “one of the greatest stages for sartorial display”.
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“What you wore was incredibly important, because a good court appearance could mean furthering your career, a good marriage, you could catch the eye of the king or queen.” Similarly today, “a great red carpet moment can make or break your career”. The exhibition showcases dozens of contemporary garments designed to make the most of their brief moment before the cameras.
These include Blake Lively’s Versace gown from the Met Gala 2022, whose copper-toned skirt unfurls to reveal an enormous verdigris train; a “little black dress” with huge turquoise train worn by Jonathan Van Ness to the 2019 Emmys; and the black and gold litter – accessorised by six shirtless men – on which Billy Porter was carried aloft to the 2019 Met Gala, complete with huge golden wings.
Fashion spectacle is far from a recent invention, however – the gown worn by Lady Helen Robertson in 1760, also in the exhibition, has a three-metre wide skirt. Menswear of the time, too, was about ornamentation and exaggeration (as evidenced by padded stockings worn to enhance the calves).
The exhibition is the largest ever staged at Kensington Palace, and the curator Claudia Acott Williams said it had been conceived partly to make sense of the palace’s spacious state apartments. “One of the things that people say [when they visit] is, ‘Why are these spaces so empty?’ If you go to a National Trust house, it’s jam-packed full of furniture and belongings, but when you come here, it feels quite sparse. The reason for that is that these were big party spaces designed to be full of people.”
While a huge yellow gown from the Georgian period, or Lizzo’s custom black corset dress with exaggerated hips and cape from the 2022 Met Gala might be outlandish garments in other contexts, the palace was built for exactly this kind of display, she says.
Other treasures in the show include Audrey Hepburn’s 1954 Givenchy Oscars dress (and the Academy Award won by its designer Edith Head), and the Silver Tissue Dress, the oldest surviving example of court dress, which dates from the 1660s.
Arguably the exhibition’s highlight is the gold Peter Dundas gown and headdress worn by a pregnant Beyoncé at the 2017 Grammys, and loaned by the singer herself. “The 18th century is really when the whole notion of celebrity culture begins with the expansion of print media,” said Acott Williams. “We were thinking about this idea of celebrity and who signifies that today – and Beyoncé is one of the names that resonates across the board.”
The dress is displayed in front of a scarlet throne in the Presence Chamber, where Georgians once hoped to be admitted to meet the king or queen, alongside a sign that reads: “Bow down.”
