The Gilded Age's Most Famous Dress: Alice Vanderbilt's "Electric Light"

The Gilded Gentleman

Carl visits the Museum of the City of New York where he's joined by Collections Manager for Costumes and Textiles, Elizabeth Randolph, to discuss the famous dress Alice Vanderbilt wore to her sister-in-law Alva'a ball, while inspecting the original dress itself.

On the evening of March 26, 1883, Alva Vanderbilt threw her famous costume ball to officially open her new "Petit Chateau" on Fifth Avenue and to secure her place in Gilded Age society. Her sister-in-law, Alice, not to be outdone, arrived at the ball and created one of the most talked about fashion statements from the Gilded Age to today.

Alice had the famed British-born Parisian couturier Charles Frederick Worth design a gown that represented "electric light" - a new idea in 1883. Encrusted with gold and silver threads, Alice's gown caught the attention of not only the guests at the ball, but the press whose reports of her dress ranged from the credible to the outrageous. Jose Mora, the noted society photographer of the era, captured Alice in a famous photograph in which Alice, wearing the dress, holds a torch high above her head.

Myths about the dress have circulated for years - that there was a concealed battery back in the bodice, that the dress itself somehow "lit up", and on and on. Miraculously, the original dress survives today and is in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York. With deep gratitude and thanks to the Museum, I was allowed to see the actual dress and record this interview with Elizabeth Randolph. With the dress laid out before us, we explored the story of what's true, what's not, and just what effect (both visual and social) Alice would have made wearing the dress on the night of Alva's ball.