Sailor Chic
25 July - 2 December 2007
Fashion's love affair with the sea

  • Costume design for revival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore, 1893 © V & A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London Costume design for revival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore, 1893

    Wilhelm
    pencil and watercolour on paper

    HMS Pinafore, one of the most popular of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's 'Savoy operas' is a comic operetta of love between different social classes, poking fun at the Victorian Royal Navy through the conventions of nautical melodrama. Over the years the designs for HMS Pinafore have reflected the fashions of the day, which have been combined with recognizable nautical styles and motifs.

    V & A Theatre Collections

  • Nautical ballet costume, 1887 © NMM Neg. no. PU0167 Nautical ballet costume, 1887

    Alf Cooke
    coloured lithograph

    The Navy permeated all elements of Victorian visual arts. This ballet costume for a sailor was made for the Army and Navy ballet at London's Alhambra Theatre. This specialized in 'beautiful ballets' and was a notorious meeting place for prostitutes and their clients. The use of nautical motifs and naval uniform has been fused with patriotic symbolism to create saucy but practical dance wear.

    NMM PAD0167