Grand Ladies

The Hull Museum’s notes for thiss dress include:  "The wife of Sir Arthur Atkinson of Hull wore this dress at the couple’s wedding in 1892. It is decorated with bunches of fake orange blossom made from wax at the neck and hem.

Madame Clapham made this dress. She was Hull’s most famous dressmaker. Madame Clapham’s workers were superstitious. When they made a skirt for a wedding dress they would sew a strand of their hair into the hem. They believed this would bring good luck to the bride.

Rich and fashionable ladies had dresses for special occasions made at Madame Clapham’s salon. Madame Clapham received many wedding orders. She often created dresses for the bride and bridesmaids, as well as some of the guests.

Emily Clapham opened her dressmaking salon in Kingston Square, Hull, in 1887. By the 1890s she was regarded as Hull’'s finest dressmaker. The salon attracted an international clientele of rich and stylish ladies. Madame Clapham ran the salon until her death in 1952, when her niece Emily Wall took over until 1967.

Madame Clapham was an imposing figure, always dressed immaculately in black or navy. Her floor length dresses with trains, which she wore long after they were fashionable, rustled as she moved around the salon…"

The Hull Museum’s Detailed Record includes this, "Cream/pink corded silk wedding dress, with v-neckline, eight bunches of wax orange blossom around neckline, large puff sleeves with long lace cuff, pinked flower hem decoration with large bunches of wax orange blossom, back fasten with lacing, train. Madame Clapham.”

Keywords:  Keywords:  1891, Madam Clapham, Bertha Blain Haughton, Mrs. Sir Arthur Joseph Atkinson, Haughton family, Atkinson family, fitted bodice, princess cut, vee neckline, floral bodice ornaments, quarter length puffed upper sleeves, lace long flared cuffs, no waistline, close skirt, passementerie, floral skirt ornament, train