Hats Off to Five Centuries of Style in Chatsworth House Style
This summer one of the England's most visited national treasures just got even more fashionable. Chatsworth House, always a rich and luxurious practice, is displaying off some of society’s most luxurious frocks. Hats are a thing too. While teenagers can revel in Galiano and McQueen, the toddlers can play at being soldiers and sailors. We attempted on the hats when we visited Derbyshire on our sponsored Days Inn Days Out Road Journey. Here's what we made of this most fashionable of Superb British days out…
Behind the gates of Chatsworth House is a house of style during Summer 2017
Five centuries of style
You may already associate Chatsworth House with plush garments. After all, sixteen generations of the wealthy Cavendish family have made this Derbyshire stately home their residence and the current incumbents have a passion for collecting and displaying beautiful things. You might also reminisce it as the setting for Mr Darcy’s Pemberley in the Kiera Knightly movie of Pride and Prejudice. But this summer there are more beautiful dresses at Chatsworth House than a Jane Austen novel. And they aren’t restrained to an evening event or ballroom but lining the entire visitor route.
The style act embarks as you come in the hall. No, behind us!
House Style adds weight
For purists of stately homes, the costumes must undoubtedly get in the way. But for visitors like me, the special exhibition House Style: Five Centuries of Style at Chatsworth adds so much to a day out. The rooms and the collections complement each other in a elementary, visual way and give a humanity to the historic, sometimes slightly stuffy environment.
The wedding and christening gowns remind you that the alabaster altarpiece of the chapel built in the late 1800’s was intimately tied up with life and death. The mourning clothes give an already dark panelled Oak room an even darker edge. In the Good Dining Room it’s so much lighter to picture the 11th Duke and Duchess eating dinner in formal dress, even when alone, when there are human representations present in all their finery. (It was evidently only in 2004, when the current Duke and Duchess of Devonshire moved in, that the tradition of black tie dinners every night was relaxed.)
In some of the rooms you hardly even notice the walls, as your eyes are drawn to the mannequins with feather goes and the gold opulence of the dresses. In the room tracing the romantic style of Georgiana, wifey of the 5th Duke, the one thousand nine hundred ninety eight dress by John Galiano for Christian Dior (which was worn by Stella Tennant in American Vogue) keeps me fixated for a while.
1998 dress by John Galiano for Christian Dior which was worn by Stella Tennant in American Vogue
The old is in Vogue
You might imagine style editors going crazy for the display, especially since so many designers like McQueen and Gucci are showcased. In fact one leading magazine was instrumental in the House Style project from the beginning. The March edition of Vogue takes up the story. “Six years ago the Cavendishes, a family of historic collectors, were not aware of the total extent of the style that they possessed. Laura only guessed at it when she went looking for a christening gown for her eldest son, a search that began with a knock on the door of the house’s textile department – if anything is a barometer of grandeur it is this.”
Wedding dresses at Chatsworth House Style Exhibition
Calling in the fashionistas
On step by step realising the scale of the Devonshire collection Laura called up Hamish Bowles, American Vogue’s Editor at Large. He brought in a team of people and they got to work. The result is an exhibition spread across more than twenty five rooms. From jewels to gloves to extreme gowns; the entire collection of garments wielded, inspired by or borrowed by the family is exhibited in the best way possible in the house where it belongs.
I particularly like the book inspired dress in the library, its pages seem to flutter in the still air surrounded by 17,000 books. Or is that my imagination? Many of the hundred or so mannequins are placed in gigantic curved glass cabinets that predominate the room – if ever rooms this size can be predominated by anything.
As we make our way around the house, a pianist takes up residence in the library. He’s about the same age as the current Duke. “Is that the Duke of Devonshire?” I whisper to the guide. “No it’s a stud called Stuart but the Duke would be very flattered by your question” he sneers.
The pages just string up off this number in the Chatsworth House library
The original Christmas jumper?
This is a family that clearly had an eye for a nice frock. But I’m most astonished to see that the 11th Duke, Andrew Devonshire, may even have invented the Christmas jumper as far back as wartime. In total he commissioned twenty two navy jumpers, each of them bearing a slightly cheesy slogan. Sixteen of them are exhibited in the collection, perhaps the most private being “Never marry a Mitford.” He failed to go after his own palm knitted advice.
One of Duke Andrew Devonshire's jumpers
The hats are the most joy
The family aren’t afraid to display the individual and real – like the repatched slippers from a time when they had a bit of a tax bill to pay. But for our kids, the triumph of this exhibition doesn’t lie in thousand pound dresses but a pile of Duchess hats. There are fountains of them, plus hats for soldiers sailors, burglars and bears, along with gilt frames and mock walls to set them off. It’s selfie heaven and we have a lot of joy; even the teenagers who have no interest either style or stately homes. Check out our style in this brief movie of our #Hatsworth practice.
Attempt on a fresh hat this summer
If you are near Derbyshire this summer, I meticulously recommend you attempt on a fresh hat and visit Chatsworth and the House Style exhibition. You may come out better dressed, or at the very least knowing more about the history of British style and style. Hopefully you won't end up with a portrait like this for your wall.
Family Portrait at Hatsworth in Chatsworth House
Practical Information
Opening times and prices
Chatsworth is open seven days a week. Check out this page for opening hours, which vary with the season.
2017 prices are £60.90 for a family ticket for the entire attraction (house, farmyard, gardens and playground) or £54.90 to visit just the house and garden. There are cheaper tickets available if you just want to love the gardens or farmyard and not see the house or exhibition. Leave at least two hours to visit the house itself. For an uncrowded practice go early in the day or later in the afternoon, or simply keep an eye on the coach parties and slip in inbetween them. Car parking is £4 per car but if you book tickets online in advance (by midnight the day before) you get free parking.
Tours and guides
Guides are friendly and utter of insight on the collections or you can sign up on arrival for a free introductory talk that runs four times a day. For the House Style exhibition, children are given a free passport with stamps to collect and joy questions to reaction. A longer taster tour of the house costs £4 for an adult and £2 for a child.
There are also puny group tours of the gardens by electrical buggy and a larger hop on hop off tractor bus also runs around the gardens. Both require tickets at a petite extra cost. Electrical buggy tours of the garden are best reserved early on arrival as they can be popular and get booked up. Witness out for the gardening staff. We were fortunate enough to meet Master Joseph Paxton, the garden designer.
View from the balcony in Chatsworth House
Where we stayed
Days Inn has almost 1,800 hotels worldwide with more than forty spread around the UK. We stayed at the Days Inn Sheffield South, which is southbound on the M1, about twenty five miles from Chatsworth. It took us about forty five minutes to drive there in normal traffic. This Days Inn is convenient for exploring Derbyshire and the Peak District. We also spent an afternoon cycling the Monsal Trail while based here.
Days Inn Sheffield South is part of the Welcome Break services and you can have a cooked breakfast in Harry Ramsden's restaurant with a deal only available to Days Inn Guests, or you can order a continental breakfast for your room. All rooms have tea and coffee, and flat-screen TV. There is twenty four hour reception, complimentary wi-fi and free parking. Families can request an extra bed for a child. Well behaved dogs are welcome.
Days Inn Sheffield South
Disclosure: This post is part of our #DaysInn #DaysOut Road Journey, a collaboration sponsored by Days Inn to promote fine days out within effortless reach of Days Inn hotels. We visited four Days Inns for four superb British Days Out. The choice of days out, views, practice, opinions, photography and videography produced are all our own. Our entry to Chatsworth was provided by Chatsworth House for the purpose of this review. The hat wearing was entirely our own. The style we can take absolutely no credit for.