When Parisian actress Joséphine Coffin-Chevallier married English landowner John Bowes in 1852, they made plans for a world-class museum to introduce decorative art to the people of John’s home in County Durham. The Bowes Museum opened in 1892.
In 2017, the museum worked with renowned historical costumier Luca Costigliolo on its new permanent display, ‘Joséphine Bowes – The Woman of Fashion’ and Luca asked me to help recreate a highlight of Joséphine Bowes’ of the new exhibit.

The item was a skirt, missing from a newly conserved lavender silk evening bodice, that dated from 1862. Fashions changed quickly in Europe in the mid-19th century, so to remain faithful to the original design, I spent many hours in the museum’s own collections, drawing together images and patterns from the period.

Great skill was needed in creating the skirt shape, which had to lay correctly over the crinoline, and whose folds and pleats followed very specific rules.

All of the finishing sewing was done by hand, with the size of the stitches and tension replicating exactly the stitching on the bodice. Finally, I attached the skirt to the waistband and secured the hem using very fine stitching.

I carried out a very similar project on another evening skirt from the Bowes Museum collection, loaned to the Victoria and Albert Museum for its exhibition, Opera: Passion, Power and Politics. This one was worn in the 1860s by Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III of France. Its replica involved digitally printing the original pattern onto the textile and gently steaming the skirt to relax the fabric and achieve the authentic shape.