Themes 

The Messel Dress Collection can be accessed through a number of themes:

The Women as Guardians of the Messel Dress Collection - explores how the women of the Messel family lovingly preserved their collection of dress.

Fashion Designers - illustrates the range of top London, Irish and Chinese designers represented in the collection.

Fancy Dress - reveals the women's love of mainly historical and oriental inspired dressing up.

Homemade and Personalised Dress - examines Marion Sambourne, Maud Messel and Anne, Countess of Rosse's passion for dressmaking and customising their fashionable clothing.

Embroidery and the Nymans Needlework Guild - explores the needlework school established by Maud Messel at Nymans, her Sussex country home.

Travel Influences - examines the clothing in the collection which has been stylistically influenced by the women's travels abroad and interest in other cultures, particularly their love of China.

Gardens, Flowers and Floral Clothes - reveals that Maud Messel and Anne, Countess of Rosse's passion for gardening and flowers is reflected in their fashionable dress.

Birth, Marriage and Death - tells the lives of the Messel women through their clothing.

Fashionable Hats - illustrates some of the more unusual  headwear in the Messel Dress Collection worn by Maud Messel and Anne, Countess of Rosse.

Family Homes - explores the homes of Marion Sambourne, Maud Messel, Anne, 6th Countess of Rosse and Alison, 7th Countess of Rosse, revealing the family's taste for romantic nineteenth-century vernacular revival styles.

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