The Greatest Fashion Crime in History
Half a century ago, on 11 November the elegant Georgian mansion Malone House, owned by Belfast City Council, went up in flames. It would later be rebuilt and the ground floor restaurant reopened. The costume and textile collection of around 10,000 objects destroyed on the first floor was irreplaceable. Only one significant item was saved: the precious 1712 Martha Lennox Quilt. The Ulster Museum had moved its collection to Malone House only a few months earlier due to lack of storage space in its Botanic Gardens building.
Later that fateful day the Belfast Telegraph reported, “Two bombs were planted in the building by two men and a girl. The gang ordered staff to lie down saying it was a raid. Three minutes after disappearing, as staff scrambled clear, the bombs, one in an upstairs room, exploded soon after each other. 30 members of the Ulster Tourist Development Association were just beginning a meeting when a bomb warning was shouted and they managed to get out in time.” It was an IRA attack.
Firefighters were striking at the time for hazard pay to deal with paramilitary attacks. Upon confirmation that no lives were in danger, full time firefighters refused to respond. It took 13 minutes before the blaze was tackled by part time crews from Lisburn, by which stage the building was gutted and most of its contents lost. Just another long forgotten incident in the seemingly neverending political and uncivil unrest of 20th century Northern Ireland.
A staff memo of that day reads: “10,000 or so items destroyed along with their records. The specimens lost included one of the best collections of linen damask in the world, a rare Elizabethan embroidered jacket, a costume collection with items from nearly every year from the 1700s to the 1970s, and a very good collection of 18th century dress. Irish, English and Continental lace, Irish and foreign embroidery including 17th century embroidery. Fans, toys, dolls, needlework tools, fashion plates, photograph albums, foreign costume and all costume accessories.”
Enter Elizabeth McCrum, then Curator at the Ulster Museum. No need for tired phoenix metaphors – with intelligence, determination, stoicism and more than a little grit – Elizabeth began collecting anew and today the Ulster Museum has around 6,000 exquisite dresses, textiles and jewellery items. Her drive continues to influence the Ulster Museum’s approach.
In the aftermath of the greatest fashion crime in history, Elizabeth was faced with how to record the loss of a national collection and how to start a new one. She compiled an inventory of the vanished pieces, working with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to verify the significance and monetary value of each item. In 1977 a public appeal was launched which attracted 400 donations from across Ireland and Britain. Northern Ireland Office compensation money for malicious damage allowed for new acquisitions.
Elizabeth’s aim was to create a collection that told the story of fashionable dress from the earliest period possible to current times. In that era few museums were acquiring contemporary fashion which meant 20th century couture such as Yves Saint Laurent could be bought for reasonable prices at auction. Historic purchases included the embroidered 18th century coat and breeches belonging to the Anglo Irish aristo George Augustus Rochfort, 2nd Earl of Belvedere.
Ashes to Fashion is a new exhibition making waves at the Ulster Museum. Many of the 50 fashion pieces are the result of Elizabeth’s collecting strategy acquiring two new outfits – one high street, one from an international designer – for the two seasons every year. Educated household names’ fashion at the exhibition includes pieces by Sybil Connolly (Irish), Lorcan Mullany (Irish), Elie Saab (Lebanese) and Gianni Versace (Italian).
Who are those beautiful monochromatic ladies in the photographs on display? Did they enjoy their polychromatic lives in Belfast? One in a photographer’s studio, the other two outdoors. Were they not sweltering in their bonnets and shawls and crinolines? At least the two outside had their parasols ready to spring open once they had finished posing.
Next door in the permanent art collection gallery is a clever hang juxtaposition. The muted hues and stillness of Paul Henry’s seascape (Dawn, Killary Harbour, 1921) contrasts with the stronger colours and movement of Bridget Riley’s waves in motion (Cataract IV, 1967). The Ulster Museum itself is a clever stylistic juxtaposition. Brutalism (Francis Pym, 1963) collides and entwines with neoclassicism (James Cumming Wynnes, 1913) to form the best fusion architecture in Ireland. Closer to the City Hall, Verona Bridal offers contemporary fashionistas the chance to buy their own designer threads. And then have a celebratory sip in Bert’s Jazz Bar.
