This charming fancy-dress costume was acquired from a private collector. The following information was recorded at the time: ‘This dress was worn to a fancy-dress ball at Mena House, Cairo, in 1907 by a Miss Geddes. The dress is accompanied by three photographs of the owner wearing it and a cutting from the Egyptian Gazette of 20 February 1907 describing the ball’. While the newspaper cutting is now lost, the photograph bears this handwritten annotation: ‘1907, under the orange blossom, Bloemfontein (South Africa)’.
This work in on display in Fashion Detective at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia (9 May – 31 August 2014).