Reigning Fashion: Victoria & the Queen at Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum

A Sunday Salon series at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum to open with curator & scholar Lynne Bassett and a talk on Queen Victoria as a fashion trendsetter.  On Sunday, April 23, 2017, 2:30-4:30 p.m. at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, 295 West Avenue in Norwalk, CT, Lynne Zacek Bassett will give a talk titled, Reigning Fashion: Victoria and the Queen, 1837 - 1901.       

The popular new PBS series, Victoria, examines the life of Great Britain's nineteenth-century queen. The dazzling costumes worn by the actors prompts this lecture's examination of the cultural history of clothing in the Victorian era.  What was the inspiration for women's dress styles in the period?  How was clothing made and who did the work?  What was Queen Victoria's role as a fashion leader?  And, how authentic are the costumes worn in the PBS series?  To complement the Mathews-Lockwood Mansion Museum's current exhibition of wedding dresses, this lecture will include a discussion of nineteenth-century wedding fashions and the effect of Queen Victoria's 1840 marriage to Prince Albert.

This will be the first in a series of talks by experts in the field of 19^th and early 20^th centuries’ material and cultural life. The Salon includes a talk, refreshments, and a tour of the first floor of the Mansion; $15 for members, $20 for non-members per session. Refreshments are courtesy of Best in Gourmet.  Please RSVP by Thurs, April 20, 2017. The chair of the Lecture Committee is Mimi Findlay of New Canaan.