Record details
| Purple evening dress | |
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Dress purchased from Adnitts store in 1962. The donor and her husband saw the dress in the window of Adnitts, which was a department store in the Drapery, when they were dress shopping. Initially they dismissed it because of its price at £25. Not finding a better dress elsewhere they returned to Adnitts and it happened to be a one off, model gown in her size and thus they purchased it. The owner recalls feeling like a princess as the dress, wrapped in tissue, was carried for them and laid in their car. |
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| Northampton Museum and Art Gallery | |
| 1962 | |
| Fabric and plastic | |
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Purple has long been associated with royalty, originally because purple dye was extremely expensive in antiquity. Purple was the colour worn by Roman magistrates; it became the imperial colour worn by the rulers of the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, and later by Roman Catholic bishops. Similarly in Japan, the color is traditionally associated with the emperor. |