Cream-colored silk satin and orange silk taffeta evening gown. Satin bodice draped with silver-embroidered net, and trimmed with pearls, beads, ribbon, and a feather. Draped taffeta overskirt, the center-front and center-back panels embroidered with beads and pearls. Underskirt of silver-embroidered net, lined with silk satin. Collection of the Goldstein Museum of Design/College of Design, St. Paul, Minnesota.
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L.P. Hollander was founded 1848 by Maria Theresa Baldwin (1820-1885), wife of Jacob L. Hollander. (The "L.P." most likely refers to her eldest son, Louis.) Baldwin started as a dressmaker in Boston after her husband's business had failed in New York. Beginning with children's clothes, she soon branched out into ladies' wear. She sent her sons to Europe, particularly to Paris and London, in order to acquire the latest fashions and fine dressmaking materials. An early vocal opponent of slavery, she eventually gave over the running of the business to her sons, thereafter devoting her energies to charities and the suffrage movement. By the time of her death the company had long been a very well-known and respected luxury dressmaker and import house. The business was inherited by her son Theodore and several branches were soon opened: Fifth Avenue in New York City - 1890; Newport - 1892; Palm Beach - 1907; and later, among other locations, Pasadena, Bar Harbor, and Hyannis. The New York branch was sold in 1929 and, that same year, the new owner embarked on the construction of the L.P. Hollander Building at 552 Fifth Avenue at 46th Street in Manhattan; now an Art Deco landmark, it was finished the following year. With the Depression in full force, in February of 1932 the L.P. Hollander company went into voluntary bankruptcy, though they would continue to do business for several more years.
Stunning! Thank you.
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