The Peacock dress of Lady Curzon is a

gown A gown, from the Latin word, ''gunna'', is a usually loose outer garment from knee-to-full-length worn by people of both sexes in Europe from the Early Middle Ages to the 17th century, and continuing today in certain professions; later, the t ...

made of gold and silver thread embroidered by the Workshop of Kishan Chand (India), and designed by Jean-Philippe Worth for

Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston Mary Victoria Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston, (née Leiter; 27 May 1870 – 18 July 1906), was an American heiress who married George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, George Curzon, the future Viceroy of India. In America Mary ...

to celebrate the 1902

Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra The coronation of the British monarch, coronation of Edward VII and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, Alexandra, as King of the United Kingdom, king and List of British royal consorts, queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, ...

at the second

Delhi Durbar The Delhi Durbar ( lit. "Court of Delhi") was an Indian imperial-style mass assembly organized by Britain at Coronation Park, Delhi, India, to mark the succession of an Emperor or Empress of India. Also known as the Imperial Durbar, it was he ...

in 1903. It is today kept at

Kedleston Hall Kedleston Hall is a neo-classical manor house owned by the National Trust, and seat of the :Curzon family, Curzon family, located near Kedleston in Derbyshire, England, approximately 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Derby. The medieval village ...

, Derbyshire, as part of its collection. The dress features a design representing the feathers of a

peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...

, a symbol of great significance in Indian culture and the Hindu religion, on a fabric traditionally worn by Mughal court rulers.Official Peacock dress page of the National Trust Collections website
/ref> Lady Curzon's dress was a reference to the Peacock Throne that originally stood in the

Diwan-I-Khas Diwan or Divan is a term of Arabic origin referring to various types of reception halls. The term occurs in various examples of Islamic architecture, where it can also refer to a government council chamber (related to the ''divan''), as well as in ...

palace, where the ball took place. This dazzling jewelled throne, now lost, was made for

Shah Jahan Shah Jahan I, (Shahab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram; 5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), also called Shah Jahan the Magnificent, was the Emperor of Hindustan from 1628 until his deposition in 1658. As the fifth Mughal emperor, his reign marked the ...

in the early 17th century but was looted during the Persian invasion of Nader Shah in 1739. A replica throne was destroyed in 1857 when the British commandeered the Red Fort as a garrison in

the Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

. The gown was assembled from panels of chiffon that had been embroidered and embellished by skilled craftsmen in the Workshop of Kishan Chand in India, using the

zardozi Zardozi, or zar-douzi or zarduzi (from Classical Persian زَردوزی ''zardōzī'', literally "gold embroidery"; ; , , , ), is an Iranian, Indian subcontinent, Indian-subcontinent and Central Asian embroidery type. Zardozi comes from two Pers ...

(gold wire weaving) method (the technique takes its name from the densely worked metal thread; zar (gold) and dozi (work)).The Peacock Dress
object record on the

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

website It was then shipped to Paris, where the

House of Worth The House of Worth was a French fashion house that specialized in haute couture, ready-to-wear clothes, and perfumes. It was founded in 1858 by English designer Charles Frederick Worth. It continued to operate under his descendants until 1952 and ...

styled the dress with a long train edged with white chiffon roses. The worked panels were overlapping peacock feathers that had a blue-green beetle wing at the centre. Over time, the metal thread in the dress has tarnished but the beetle wings have not lost their lustre. The gown weighs over .Lady Mary Curzon's Peacock Dress
featured on National Trust website for Kedleston Hall The Viceroy,

Lord Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as Lord Curzon (), was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, explorer and writer who served as Viceroy of India ...

, organised the second

in 1903 to celebrate the 1902 coronation of

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

, "the grandest pageant in history", which created a tremendous sensation, and served as a symbol of British rule over India. The dress was featured in a ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' article because Lady Curzon was from Chicago. State portraits were ordered from the artist

William Logsdail William Logsdail (25 May 1859 – 3 September 1944) was a prolific English landscape, portrait, and genre painter. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Grosvenor Gallery, the New Gallery (London), and ot ...

, but Lady Curzon's portrait was completed in 1909 after her death in 1906. The peacock dress is preserved, together with the Logsdail portrait, at

. Lady Curzon was instrumental in promoting the use of Indian embroidery in Western fashion, and many of her friends ordered gowns from Worth using such decorations, though they generally used much less metal threadwork which weighed her dress down. Another of her embroidered court dresses, assembled by the House of Worth in 1903, is on display at the

Fashion Museum, Bath The Fashion Museum (known before 2007 as the Museum of Costume) was housed in the Assembly Rooms in Bath, Somerset, England. The collection was started by Doris Langley Moore, who gave her collection of costumes to the city of Bath in 1963. T ...

Gallery

File:Mary Leiter, Lady Curzon, wearing a 1903 gown by Jean-Philippe Worth.jpg, Albert Edward Jeakins, 1903, Lady Curzon wearing the peacock dress. File:George Curzon and Mary Curzon on the elephant Lakshman Prasad 1902-12-29 in Delhi.jpg, Lord and Lady Curzon arriving at the Delhi Durbar in 1903

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading