History's Runway: The Stern Bros. Silk Velvet Gown, 1894-5

This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

The fashions of 1895 brought about a renewed interest in the opulent as we can see from this sumptuous evening dress with the style of dramatic sleeves which dominated women’s clothes of the mid-1890s. Such sleeves were really to serve one purpose--to make the waist look small by comparison.

The skirt and bodice of this gown from New York-based Stern Brothers is embroidered in beads with delicate butterfly and ribbon motifs. As an issue of “The Queen” from April, 1894 noted, butterflies were to be all the rage in designs of 1895.

A label stitched in the waistband reads, “Stern Bros., West 23rd , New York.” Stern Bros. was one of the largest New York department stores of the time and fashionable ladies from across the world would eagerly buy their garments when in New York.
This dress was owned by Cara Broughton, née Cara Leland Huttleston Rogers (1867-1939), who married Urban Hanlon Broughton (1857-1929) in 1895. Urban H. Broughton died before he could be elevated to a peerage, and so, their eldest son Urban H.R. Broughton (1896-1966) became 1st Baron Fairhaven of Lode on 20 March 1929, while Cara became 1st Lady Fairhaven.

Cara’s grandson donated a massive collection of clothing to the V&A which includes gowns worn by Cara as well as her sister, Anne during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. This dress has been labeled—long ago—as having been worn by Anne. We know that the dress was purchased originally by Cara, but further research shows that Anne wore the gown during a period of half-mourning.