Wedding dress by Madame Clapham, Hull, 1892
The wife of Sir Arthur Atkinson of Hull wore this dress at the coupleâs wedding in 1892. It is decorated with bunches of fake orange blossom made from wax at the neck and hem.
Madame Clapham made this dress. She was Hullâs most famous dressmaker. Madame Claphamâs workers were superstitious. When they made a skirt for a wedding dress they would sew a strand of their hair into the hem. They believed this would bring good luck to the bride.
Rich and fashionable ladies had dresses for special occasions made at Madame Claphamâs salon. Madame Clapham received many wedding orders. She often created dresses for the bride and bridesmaids, as well as some of the guests.
Emily Clapham opened her dressmaking salon in Kingston Square, Hull, in 1887. By the 1890s she was regarded as Hullâs finest dressmaker. The salon attracted an international clientele of rich and stylish ladies. Madame Clapham ran the salon until her death in 1952, when her niece Emily Wall took over until 1967.
Madame Clapham was an imposing figure, always dressed immaculately in black or navy. Her floor length dresses with trains, which she wore long after they were fashionable, rustled as she moved around the salon. She left behind the perfume of lavender that she wore.
Emily Clapham had piercing blue eyes, rosy cheeks and long blonde hair piled elaborately on top of her head. She was polite but firm with her clients, and ran a very strict regime in her workrooms. Her highly trained staff produced the fine needlework that earned Madame Clapham her reputation as a dressmaker.
