Dress

This dress was designed by Charles James for Anne, Countess of Rosse in 1938. It is made of blue silk twill printed with a repeat pattern of Snow White’s face. Walt Disney’s animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarf’s was premiered in America in 1937, this fabric is probably part of the themed merchandise that was produced when the film was released. However, unlike the film version, this Snow White has white not black hair.

The dress has an usual construction, which bears the hallmarks of Charles James’s cutting techniques. At the centre of the waist five panels of fabric meet, creating a juxtaposition of faces. The dress fastens at the shoulders with two large buttons. The skirt is A-line and just below knee length. The dress is unlabelled but Anne wrote on an inventory and on its storage box that it was made for her by Charles James.

This dress is part of the Messel Dress Collection, which includes six generations of one family’s clothes dating from 1870 - 2005.