Doris Langley Moore
Encyclopedia
Doris Langley Moore OBE
(1902–1989) also known as Doris Langley-Levy Moore, was one of the first important female fashion historians. She founded the Fashion Museum, Bath
(as The Museum of Costume) in 1963. She was also a well-respected Lord Byron scholar, and author of a 1940s ballet, The Quest. As a result of these wide-ranging interests, she had many connections within fashionable, intellectual, artistic and theatrical circles.
, where her father was a newspaper editor. At the age of 18, she returned to England to study classical languages at university.
In her twenties, Langley Moore wrote a few lifestyle books, one of which, The Technique of the Love Affair (1928), was reprinted in 1999/2002. This was a tongue-in-cheek self-help book
which suggested ways in which love affairs in the post-World War I era could be successfully conducted. Dorothy Parker
, reviewing for The New Yorker
, commented: "The Technique of the Love Affair makes, I am bitterly afraid, considerable sense. If only it had been placed in my hands years ago, maybe I could have been successful instead of just successive."
Subsequent books included Pandora's Letter-Box (1929) and, in 1933, co-written with her sister June Langley Moore, a guide for society hostesses called The Pleasure of your Company.
and C. Willett Cunnington, Langley Moore favoured a hands-on object-based approach where she drew her conclusions after personally examining surviving artefacts. In 1949 she exploded the myth of the 18-inch waist, which almost all Victorian women were supposed to have had, by measuring over 200 surviving dresses and bodices in collections across the country. Her survey revealed that the average 19th century waist measurement sat comfortably within the 20-30 inch range, and that almost none of her subjects had a waist measurement less than 21 inches.
Her collection began with fashion plate
s in the early 1920s, and in 1928 she was given her first period dress. This led her to embark upon a dedicated quest for further examples of fashion and dress. Until about 1940, she was pro-active in her searching, taking the initiative and seeking out material to collect; but as it became more widely known that she was collecting, she was specifically sought out by people with garments and accessories to dispose of. Langley Moore had a large house in London, which she filled up with her collection, living in a small flat nearby.
Her collecting policy was firm:
From 1949 onwards Langley Moore actively sought to establish a museum dedicated to fashion in the United Kingdom. Apart from the Gallery of Costume in Manchester, opened in 1947, there were no museums in England (and very few worldwide) dedicated solely to dress.. In her Proposal for a Museum of Costume, Langley Moore laid out her wishes for an instutition which offered facilities for the study of costume, not simply of the past, but also contemporary fashion, and offered displays of both historical and up-to-date fashion.
Langley Moore's collection travelled to various locations during her search for a home for her museum. In 1955, an exhibition opened at Eridge Castle in Kent, and it was also briefly displayed at the Royal Pavilion
in Brighton
and the Octagon Chapel, Bath
. The collection was eventually donated to the City of Bath and found a home at the Bath Assembly Rooms
, where it opened for the first time in 1963. For further information, see Fashion Museum, Bath
.
, Langley Moore wrote biographies of the author E. Nesbit
, the 19th century ballerina Carlotta Grisi
, and Marie Bashkirtseff
, the Russian artist, sculptor and diarist. The title of this last book, Marie & the Duke of H, focused on Bashkirtseff's childhood infatuation with William Douglas-Hamilton, 12th Duke of Hamilton
.
for Sadler's Wells and set to music by William Walton
. Langley Moore based her story upon Edmund Spenser
's epic allegorical poem The Faerie Queene
. The Quest premiered on 6 April 1943 at the New Theatre, London. The ballet provided Moira Shearer
with her first created role (Pride) for the company. The cast also included Margot Fonteyn
, who created the role of Una, Beryl Grey, and Robert Helpmann
.
She died in 1989.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(1902–1989) also known as Doris Langley-Levy Moore, was one of the first important female fashion historians. She founded the Fashion Museum, Bath
Fashion Museum, Bath
The Fashion Museum is housed in the Assembly Rooms in Bath, Somerset, England.The collection was started by Doris Langley Moore, who gave her collection to the city of Bath in 1963. It focuses on fashionable dress for men, women and children from the late 16th century to the present day and has...
(as The Museum of Costume) in 1963. She was also a well-respected Lord Byron scholar, and author of a 1940s ballet, The Quest. As a result of these wide-ranging interests, she had many connections within fashionable, intellectual, artistic and theatrical circles.
Early life and career
Doris Langley Moore was born in 1902 in Lancashire, England. She was educated in South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, where her father was a newspaper editor. At the age of 18, she returned to England to study classical languages at university.
In her twenties, Langley Moore wrote a few lifestyle books, one of which, The Technique of the Love Affair (1928), was reprinted in 1999/2002. This was a tongue-in-cheek self-help book
Self-help book
Self-help books are books written with the stated intention to instruct any readers on a number of personal problems. They take their name from Self-Help, the Victorian best-seller, but are also known and classified under "self-improvement", a term that is a modernized version of self-help...
which suggested ways in which love affairs in the post-World War I era could be successfully conducted. Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
, reviewing for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, commented: "The Technique of the Love Affair makes, I am bitterly afraid, considerable sense. If only it had been placed in my hands years ago, maybe I could have been successful instead of just successive."
Subsequent books included Pandora's Letter-Box (1929) and, in 1933, co-written with her sister June Langley Moore, a guide for society hostesses called The Pleasure of your Company.
Fashion
Doris Langley Moore was one of the first major female fashion historians and curators along with Anne Buck. In contrast to male fashion historians such as her friend James LaverJames Laver
James Laver CBE FRSA was an author, art historian, and museum curator who acted as Keeper of Prints, Drawings and Paintings for the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1938 and 1959...
and C. Willett Cunnington, Langley Moore favoured a hands-on object-based approach where she drew her conclusions after personally examining surviving artefacts. In 1949 she exploded the myth of the 18-inch waist, which almost all Victorian women were supposed to have had, by measuring over 200 surviving dresses and bodices in collections across the country. Her survey revealed that the average 19th century waist measurement sat comfortably within the 20-30 inch range, and that almost none of her subjects had a waist measurement less than 21 inches.
Her collection began with fashion plate
Fashion plate
A fashion plate is an illustration demonstrating the highlights of fashionable styles of clothing. Fashion plates are not depictions of specific people, but are instead generalized portraits, meant only to dictate the style of clothes that a tailor, dressmaker, or store could make or sell, or to...
s in the early 1920s, and in 1928 she was given her first period dress. This led her to embark upon a dedicated quest for further examples of fashion and dress. Until about 1940, she was pro-active in her searching, taking the initiative and seeking out material to collect; but as it became more widely known that she was collecting, she was specifically sought out by people with garments and accessories to dispose of. Langley Moore had a large house in London, which she filled up with her collection, living in a small flat nearby.
Her collecting policy was firm:
- "A good specimen is one which is not only in sound condition and of nice quality, but which embodies the features of its period in an entirely representative way. A good specimen is completely of its period. If it was ever meant to be fashionable, then it will carry with it still the aura of fashion".
From 1949 onwards Langley Moore actively sought to establish a museum dedicated to fashion in the United Kingdom. Apart from the Gallery of Costume in Manchester, opened in 1947, there were no museums in England (and very few worldwide) dedicated solely to dress.. In her Proposal for a Museum of Costume, Langley Moore laid out her wishes for an instutition which offered facilities for the study of costume, not simply of the past, but also contemporary fashion, and offered displays of both historical and up-to-date fashion.
Langley Moore's collection travelled to various locations during her search for a home for her museum. In 1955, an exhibition opened at Eridge Castle in Kent, and it was also briefly displayed at the Royal Pavilion
Royal Pavilion
The Royal Pavilion is a former royal residence located in Brighton, England. It was built in three campaigns, beginning in 1787, as a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales, from 1811 Prince Regent. It is often referred to as the Brighton Pavilion...
in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
and the Octagon Chapel, Bath
Octagon Chapel, Bath
The Octagon Chapel in Milsom Street, Bath, Somerset, England was built in 1767 and has been designated as a Grade I listed building.- History :...
. The collection was eventually donated to the City of Bath and found a home at the Bath Assembly Rooms
Bath Assembly Rooms
The Bath Assembly Rooms, designed by John Wood the Younger in 1769, are a set of elegant assembly rooms located in the heart of the World Heritage City of Bath in England which are now open to the public as a visitor attraction...
, where it opened for the first time in 1963. For further information, see Fashion Museum, Bath
Fashion Museum, Bath
The Fashion Museum is housed in the Assembly Rooms in Bath, Somerset, England.The collection was started by Doris Langley Moore, who gave her collection to the city of Bath in 1963. It focuses on fashionable dress for men, women and children from the late 16th century to the present day and has...
.
Biographies
In addition to her other interests, Doris Langley Moore was a well-respected Byron scholar and wrote a number of books on Byron and his world. As well as a biography of Byron's legitimate daughter Ada LovelaceAda Lovelace
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace , born Augusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine...
, Langley Moore wrote biographies of the author E. Nesbit
E. Nesbit
Edith Nesbit was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television...
, the 19th century ballerina Carlotta Grisi
Carlotta Grisi
Carlotta Grisi, real name Caronne Adele Josephine Marie Grisi was an Italian ballet dancer born in Visinada, Istria . She was trained at the ballet school of Teatro alla Scala in Milan and later with dancer/balletmaster Jules Perrot...
, and Marie Bashkirtseff
Marie Bashkirtseff
Marie Bashkirtseff was a Ukrainian-born diarist, painter and sculptor....
, the Russian artist, sculptor and diarist. The title of this last book, Marie & the Duke of H, focused on Bashkirtseff's childhood infatuation with William Douglas-Hamilton, 12th Duke of Hamilton
William Douglas-Hamilton, 12th Duke of Hamilton
William Alexander Louis Stephen Douglas-Hamilton, 12th Duke of Hamilton, 9th Duke of Brandon, 2nd Duke of Châtellerault KT was a Scottish nobleman.-Biography:...
.
Ballet
Doris Langley Moore shared Laver's passion for the theatre, ballet and the performing arts. During the Second World War, she wrote the scenario for a ballet, The Quest, which was choreographed by Frederick AshtonFrederick Ashton
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton OM, CH, CBE was a leading international dancer and choreographer. He is most noted as the founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet in London, but also worked as a director and choreographer of opera, film and theatre revues.-Early life:Ashton was born at...
for Sadler's Wells and set to music by William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
. Langley Moore based her story upon Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
's epic allegorical poem The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English...
. The Quest premiered on 6 April 1943 at the New Theatre, London. The ballet provided Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer, Lady Kennedy , was an internationally famous Scottish ballet dancer and actress.-Early life:She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, the daughter of actor Harold V. King...
with her first created role (Pride) for the company. The cast also included Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...
, who created the role of Una, Beryl Grey, and Robert Helpmann
Robert Helpmann
Sir Robert Helpmann CBE was an Australian dancer, actor, theatre director and choreographer.-Early years:He was born Robert Murray Helpman in Mount Gambier, South Australia and also boarded at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide. From childhood, Helpman had a strong desire to be a dancer...
.
Later life
Doris Langley Moore remained closely involved with the Museum of Costume after its opening. In addition to this, she continued her work on Byron, publishing three books in the 1970s, including a biography of Byron's daughter.She died in 1989.
Film wardrobe
- The African Queen (1951) (Wardrobe for Katharine HepburnKatharine HepburnKatharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
) - Freud: The Secret Passion (1962)
Titles on fashion history
- The Woman In Fashion (London, 1949)
- The Child In Fashion (London, 1953)
- Fashion Through Fashion Plates 1771-1971 (London, 1971) ISBN 0706318056
- Gallery of Fashion 1790-1822: from Plates by Heideloff & Ackermann (1949)
Titles on Lord Byron
- The Great Byron Adventure (1959)
- The Late Lord Byron: Posthumous Dramas (1961)
- Lord Byron (1971)
- Lord Byron Accounts Rendered (1974)
- Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1977) ISBN 0060130121
Other Biographies
- E. Nesbit (1933)
- Carlotta Grisi (1947)
- Marie & the Duke of H: the daydream love affair of Marie Bashkirtseff (1966)
Other
- The Technique of the Love Affair (1928, reprinted 1999, 2002) ISBN 0785816151
- Pandora's Letter-Box: Being a discourse on fashionable life (1929)
- The Pleasure of Your Company: a Textbook of Hospitality (with June Langley Moore) (1933)
- The Vulgar Heart: an enquiry into the sentimental tendencies of public opinion (1945)