Adjusting the mounting of the broadtail dress

Mounting Vivien Leigh's broadtail dress required careful consideration about how to position the long collar pieces which wrap around the neckline of the dress. Some clues about how these might have been worn were included in a letter from the donor, Vivien Leigh's daughter Suzanne Farrington, written to her aunt Dorothy Holman when she first offered the dress to Topsham Museum in 1976. Suzanne Farrington included an ink sketch of the dress and indicated that it was worn with a brooch pinned on the collar in order to keep the pieces in a curved shape behind the head.
Subject Vivien Leigh
Source Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Date 2019-05-15
Format Photograph
Type Research process
Coverage 1950s