Second and Final Fitting

Today we had our final fitting with the Mayor before finishing it and handing it over in a week.

We were confident that the pattern we had made was now right, so it was just a matter of double checking that it worked and that the Mayor was happy with it.

We initially went into the Mayoress' parlour where there was a robe on display, which was interesting to see.  It was first worn by John Elmes Beale when he was Mayor from 1903-1905 and was the first local Freeman of the borough and was continued to be used until the early 1990s. If I am correct, this is a Lord Mayors robe and is made of black damask silk and decorated with gold trim; on our visits previously it was mentioned that this was the wrong robe to be worn and so it is surprising that they continued to use it for so long. 

We made it aware to the Mayor prior to the fitting what the garment would be like, so he didn't think we were behind. We had left our seam allowances unfinished and there was a 5cm seam allowance on the hem and the CF. We made the gown to the full length before it had been turned up on the original. We tacked teh fur into place down the CF but left it around the neck as we need to sort out gathering it around the curve and we didnt want this to pull on the yoke in fitting. We also decided to only tack on one sleeve for the fitting. 

We did all this in case any adaptations had to be made to the garment. The next stages are finishing the garment with trimmings (fur and velvet) and finishing the edges with linings and adaptations would have to take place before these. 

The Mayor was pleased with the gown, which was relieving. He thought it was much lighter than the original and was pleased with how the fabric looked. We felt we didn't have to make any alterations to the gown as it hung well and looked right proportionally. 

We decided on a length to finish the gown to, which is 10cm above the original hem line. He is quite a tall gentleman and so felt that if we made it to finish a bit under his knee then it would be suitable for any future Mayors/Mayoresses who may be smaller as it wouldn't have to be turned up too drastically. This is good for us with regards to our length of fur as it means we will not have to attach more somewhere, which might have looked clumsy. 

The change over of the Mayor is in a few weeks and so the Mayor needs it by next week. I am going to email Hazel, the Mayor's secretary and organise when would be a good time to bring in the finished robe and then Abi and I will work to that deadline. 

Second Fitting Set Back

Today we went to our second fitting, though unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances the Mayor couldn't be there and we have had to reschedule to next Tuesday.

We have re-jigged our plan to get the work done in time but unfortunately there is little else we can do until we have had the fitting as we do not want to start finishing anything in case there are alterations and we would have to back track. So for now we are going to continue with our essays and hope that Tuesday is successful!

First Fitting

Today we had our first fitting with the Mayor at the Town Hall.

We were aware that our gown wasn't quite right and so were prepared to make alterations to our patterns when looking again at the original gown. We knew the front pattern needed definite alterations as well as the curve on the wing.

As these photos show, the robe we made was far too short and I can only presume this is because we used the measurement without the extension when making our pattern. The Mayor also commented that it was too tight across the back.

Our yoke needed little alteration, we changed the curve slightly on the arm and took about a centimetre from the front shoulder seam. Therefore the width of the across back was correct on our gown. What I think made the gown feel tighter was the positioning of the arms. We had measured the gown from the inside and thought there was a dart down 40cm from the pleating. We therefore added this and sewed the wing into the side seam. We realised on this fitting that this was very wrong. The thing we thought was a narrow dart was in fact where the wing was added to the body of the gown. This was a daft mistake in hindsight however it is understandable as were measuring initially under quite some pressure and therefore missed this complication.

Drawing the curve of the wing and yoke seam onto  the pattern.

Drawing the angle of the top sleeve and hanging sleeve seam onto the pattern. 

We unpicked a sleeve and drew the curves directly onto the pattern pieces, this seemed to be the easiest and most accurate way of transferring the curves and again we double checked our measurements.

We remeasured the front body panel as we knew the curve of the armhole was drastically wrong. We remeasured the CF and side seams and then measured across the garment to the sleeve every 10cm. This was quite an accurate method of describing the curve as it was measured from a fixed position. This was similar to how you would draw a pattern from a block except that the top of the CF is slightly curved inwards.

I was quite pleased with how our cartridge pleats have come out but I think they could be tighter still. The ones on the robe are 4.5cm whereas we had made 5cm pleats but, as you can see by on the above photograph, the pleats continue behind the yoke by 1.5cm, which we hadn't realised before and thought was quite unusual.

In this fitting we tried to look a bit more at construction details. For instance under the lining on the yoke you can see that the pleats have been made with another layer of fabric to make them thicker. We also noted down which seams of the lining had been sewn by machine and then which were hand sewn (for instance the edge of the wing with fur) so then we can replicate this 

Samples of silks next to the original red showing the difference in colour.

With the samples I had loaned from the archive and the samples I got in London we had quite a large selection for the Mayor to look at. He was most interested in the silks and matching the colour of the reds perfectly. It was interesting to see how few samples actually did match the garment, without a swatch of the actual fabric I was going to fabric shops with my photos from the first meeting and an idea of the tone in my head, not realising until later what a variety of similar brilliant reds and scarlet I had got.
He decided upon the middle sample from Berwick Street Cloth House which is a lovely silk and £50 a metre.

The sample of the fur I got from Barnett Lawson was similar but too think and a slightly lighter tone. We decided upon the fur from MacCulloch and Wallis, which is 14cm in width, we thought this would be more accurate and after sewing we might loose the extra centimetre so that it is the same.

The first fitting was a bit daunting in the amount that we had to adjust and it has made me a bit anxious to get on and fix our mistakes. I am pleased with the fabrics that have been chosen as I think they will work well together and be relatively nice to work with. I am excited to gain experience of working with fabrics I have never used before such as fur. I am unsure at the moment if there are special processes that we will have to learn but I shall take it all in my stride!

Visiting Hereford Mayor's Parlour

I have previously visited the Mayors Parlour in Hereford on an open day, where I learnt that the mayor had 4 different gowns that were in use. I was therefore very interested in seeing these when I started this project. I wrote to the mayor's secretary requesting their help and Roger Stoakes, the mayors ...., was kind enough to show me the gowns.

The Mayor's Parlour is housed in the Town Hall which was opened in 1904 after the Tudor Town Hall was demolished in 1862. The building is a very ornate example of late Victorian architecture designed by H.A. Cheers of Twickenham.

'The City of Hereford has one of the oldest Mayoralties in the country, with an unbroken line of Mayors stretching back to 1382 - more than 625 years. A list of Mayors and Bailiffs since 1382 can be viewed on the landing outside the Mayor's Parlour.
Hereford does not have a Lord Mayor but a 'Right Worshipful Mayor'. This title has its origins in the term a 'worthy', implying honour and dignity to the holder of an office. The title is quite rare, and the 'Right Worthship' has evolved into 'Right Worshipful', which is a great honour for the City. Most Mayors are only styled 'The  Worshipful the Mayor' (REFERENCE)

Mayor of Hereford Robe

Back view of robe

The main robe that is used by the Mayor of Hereford is the above example. It was made by Ede & Ravenscroft and is about 40 years old. It is interesting to see how the styles of the earlier robes that are stored in the museum has evolved into this example. The trimming is Murray velvet which runs over the shoulders and down the centre, around the hem and the sleeves. The velvet down the front is attached like a collar, only secured across the hem. The sleeves are the same as the 3rd example from the museum collection but with a thinner trim, similar to the Bournemouth example but without the hanging sleeves.

630th The Right Worshipful the Mayor of Hereford, Councillor Mrs Julie Woodward (2011-2012)
Mayor wearing the above robe. 

Roger explained that the red tape on the shoulders, which is used to hold the chains in place, shows that this is a robe for a Mayor that is currently in office or has been previously. When people say 'going through the chair' that means councillors that have been through office, so are either current Mayors or ex-Mayors. If a gown has black tape on the shoulders then that means they are a deputy.

This is a second robe, which is very similar though has a wider shaped collar of velvet on the back. The pleats are wider but gathered more closely to make quite a nice shape.

Junior Mayor's Robe 

In Hereford a Junior Mayor is chosen from a local school to be in office for a year. They are usually about 11 years old and so, as you can see, the gown has been shortened on the hem and the hanging sleeves that are similar to the robes from 1835 and 1850. The lace sleeves that are worn under the robe with white gloves have to be sewn in place for the Junior Mayors but otherwise the robes are the same.

Rebecca Johns, 5th Junior Mayor of Hereford being installed in the Council Chambers. 

I explained that I will be making a lightweight robe for the Mayor of Bournemouth and asked if they had made this robe lighter or if they had anything like this and Roger explained that the robes are worn so infrequently that this is not really necessary for Hereford. In Hereford the Mayor will only wear their full dress about 10 times a year on ceremonial occasions whereas other cities may wear theirs much more and therefore this would be necessary.

Detail of the cartridge pleats on the Junior Mayor's Robe. 

This gown  was constructed in a very similar way to the 2nd example from the museum. It had a number of cartridge pleats under the arms and the pleats on the back were padded out with canvas. 

With the gown a Mayor wears a jabot, the chains, gloves and a tricorne or bicorne hat. Women wear tricorne, Men wear bicornes. On the hats there is a gold flash that on the tricorne is worn to the right. This shows that they have 'gone through the chair' Other councillors wear black flash. The above hats were made by Ede and Ravenscroft. 

*One thing that Roger said about the robes from the Museum collection was that the maroon and navy robe wouldn't be a Mayors but a Councillors robe or possibly Aldermanic but they do not do Aldermen anymore. This is something I would like to look into further as I am not particularly clear to what an Alderman is in comparison to a Mayor. 

Town Clerk's Robe

This robe is for a Town Clerk and can be seen being worn in the photo of the Junior Mayor above. The long sleeves of this gown are similar to the Junior Mayor's robes with the T-shaped opening but are covered in tassles, which are also on the back hem. 

A Liveryman Jacket 

This is a Liveryman Jacket. The job of a liveryman is to escort the Mayor in special occasions and act as a 'symbolic bodyguard'. They bear swords or maces when escorting. Hereford has 8 Liverymen, which is quite a lot.

Sword and Maces on display in the Mayors Parlour.

In the Mayors Parlour there was a shelf of photo albums and Roger showed me this picture of Councillor Beaumont who was Mayor in 1965 - 1966. He remarked that this gown should never have been bought at the time and has not been able to be used since.

The fur on this gown is miniver fur with ermine spots which is the fur used for gowns of Peers of the Realm and therefore not appropriate for a Mayors Robe. 

The last garment that I saw was the cloak for the Town Crier. In Hereford the town crier is ceremonial whereas in some other cities they hire commercial town criers. This cloak is worn over top of the liveryman jacket with the top hat. The cloth was made by Brook Taverner and the cloak constructed in a firm in Much Wenlock which makes clerical costume. 

This visit has been really beneficial to me. It was great to see more styles of Mayoral gowns and the ways they were constructed. I also learnt quite a lot about the ceremony involved when being a mayor and the other roles that are involved. 

Hereford Resource and Learning Centre - Cartridge Pleating

Before I had realised that the museum had a collection of robes I had arranged with Althea to look at cartridge pleating in detail on historic garments. The examples of cartridge pleats I had seen before have often been made with thicker, heavier fabrics and I have been interested in how the thinner fabric we will be using for our gown will effect the look of the cartridge pleats. I am also interested to see how in history they have sewn the pleats to the body of the garment when the fabric is thinner so that it is hard-wearing and strong.

Printed velvet dress circa 1835

Detail of pleats of 1835 dress

1860 dress (photo of inside detailing at top of page) 

Petticoat with box pleats at the front and cartridge pleats on the back waistline.

From looking at these dresses I learnt that cartridge pleating seems to be most common on dresses from about 1830s-90s. Also I was surprised to see that the cartridge pleats were sometimes hidden in quite indiscreet areas of the dress, such as the petticoat above where the pleats would be hidden at the back. 

To finish this post I thought I would put some photos of my favourite parts of the collection as they are so beautiful!