DRESSES TO DIE FOR
The Victorian Mourning Craze with Amber Butchart
At the Dissenters Chapel on Sunday 22nd October 2017 from 3:00 pm

When Prince Albert died of typhoid 1861 his wife Queen Victoria was plunged into a deep depression, retired from public appearances and for the remaining 40 years of her life wore only mourning, thus creating the stern images of her that we know today. The result was to make mourning culture - already codified in etiquette and dress - deeply fashionable among nineteenth century ladies.

Amber Butchart's talk will cover funereal fashion at its finest and most regal, focusing on the Victorian cult of mourning, including 'Maisons de Deuil' (mourning warehouses), mourning etiquette and jewellery, and how the colour black has been in fashion ever since.

Tickets £12 including a Hendrick's gin cocktail. Please click here to buy.

AMBER BUTCHART
Amber Butchart is a fashion historian and author, who specialises in the historical intersections between dress, politics and culture. She is an Associate Lecturer at London College of Fashion and is a regular speaker at London’s cultural hotspots from the Tate to the V&A. Amber has recently finished filming a series for BBC4 on what our clothes can teach us about history. She is currently writing a history of British fashion illustration for the British Library.

Travel advice to the Dissenters' Chapel - During the day guests can walk through the cemetery to get to the chapel but at night the main cemetery gates on the Harrow Road will be closed and the only accessible entrance is on Ladbroke Grove. Previously the address for this entrance was 364 Ladbroke Grove but this number has now been updated to 391.

The two closest underground stations are Ladbroke Grove (Hammersmith & City or Circle Line) or Kensal Green (overground and Bakerloo Line). From Ladbroke Grove station there are several buses you can take to the Dissenters which include either the 28, 52 or 452. It's best to get off at the Sainbury's bus stop and then it's a short walk down Ladbroke Grove to the entrance to the Dissenters' Chapel.

 

 

The Dissenters' Chapel, Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Ticket includes tour of the catacombs.