Lady Curzon's peacock dress

Front page of Chicago Sunday Tribune, 27 September 1903

Lady Curzon's peacock dress was a coronation gown made of gold and silver thread designed by Jean-Philippe Worth for Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston for her coronation as Vicereine of India in 1903. It was assembled from panels of chiffon that had been embroidered by Delhi and Agra craftsmen in a method known since the time of the moghuls and shipped to Paris, where the House of Worth 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 center. Over time, the metal thread in the dress has tarnished but the beetle wings have not lost their luster.

Lady Curzon's spectacular entrance to the Delhi Durbar by elephant, wearing her peacock gown in 1903.

The Viceroy, Lord Curzon, organized the second Delhi Durbar to celebrate the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII, "the grandest pageant in history", which created a tremendous sensation. The dress was featured in a Chicago Tribune article because Lady Curzon was from Chicago. State portraits were ordered from the artist William Logsdail, but Lady Curzon's portrait was completed postumously.

The dress is preserved at Kedleston Hall.

State portraits

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. According to its entry at Kedleston Hall, the peacock gown weighs 10 pounds. Another of her embroidered court dresses assembled by House of Worth in 1903, is on display at the Fashion Museum, Bath:

References

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