The highly anticipated exhibition, The Elegance of Royal Fashion, featuring Diana, Princess of Wales’ gowns from The Pat Kerr Private Royal Collection will open at noon Sunday, November 14th at the Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center in Hendersonville. The exhibit will run through January 9, 2022.
The exhibition featuring Diana, Princess of Wales’ evening gowns, as well as her replicated wedding gown, with its phenomenal 25-foot train, will be on view. Other artifacts to be showcased:
- lady-in-waiting gowns
- a gown worn by Wallis Simpson
- the late Duchess of Windsor
- a replica of the gown American socialite Jacqueline Bouvier wore to marry political scion Jack Kennedy
- the gown Kerr created for the advertising campaign of Estée Lauder’s Beautiful perfume
- a trove of royal ephemera and rare laces
This wealth of royal treasures is owned by noted Memphis fashion designer and doyenne Pat Kerr Tigrett, who resided in London for 20 years, primarily during the heyday of royal collecting. Kerr is the most prominent American collector in this particular field of endeavor. The Princess of Wales gowns Kerr owns have been shown in two recent blockbuster exhibitions at Kensington Palace in London: Fashion Rules, from 2013 to 2016, and, most recently, in an exhibition from 2017-2019, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Princess’s death. Kerr has both amassed the objects over the past four decades and created many of the items which comprise her extraordinary collection.
Timed entrance tickets for The Elegance of Royal Fashion at the MACC are available for purchase online for $20 per person.
Monthaven is located at 1017 Antebellum Circle in Hendersonville. For more information, call 615-822-0789 or visit monthavenartsandculturalcenter.com.
