Cherry Martin chose….

a brass dress holder

Until I did this search of the collection I had no idea such things existed. I would have just thought they were an elaborate pair of tongs – purpose unknown. I particularly like the butterfly design which is a favourite motif of mine. I did some research and found dress holders were used to hold up sections of dresses or skirts of a style of dress I particularly like from the Victorian period. Their main purpose was to lift the hems clear of the floor to keep the garment clean.

Cherry Martin is the Herbert's Exhibitions and Collections Trainee

What the curator says:

dress holder or skirt lifter collected in 1961

This skirt lifter was used to raise trailing skirts. From the 1860s the length of women's skirts increased, with trains becoming popular. John Ruskin, a social thinker, commented on long skirts in 1876, 'I have lost much of the faith I once had in the common sense and even in the personal delicacy of the present race of average English women by seeing how they will allow their dresses to sweep the streets'. Skirt lifters were clipped onto the hem of the dress, with a chain connecting it to the waist. The chain was pulled to climb stairs safely, or to prevent the material from becoming dirty.