Dress

This mauve satin dress was made in 1910 at the fashion salon of József Girardi. The inscription “Girardi Osztr. Csász. és Magy. Kir. Udvari Szállító” (Girardi, supplier to the Austrian imperial and Hungarian royal court) can be read on the waist of the dress. Cut and polished beads and sequins were embroidered into the tulle fabric of the upper body and arms of this dress, which also has a train and is tailored at the waist.

József Girardi was not just a wholesaler of furs, but was also one of the most famous Hungarian women’s tailors of the turn of the century. He learned the trade as an assistant at the Alter and Kiss Company where he worked for six years, then he opened his own shop in 1882 at 1 Koronaherceg Street (now Petőfi Sándor Street). His salon was open to the most elite circles, with countesses, duchesses, and wealthy bourgeois ladies turning to him for couture. He hardly accepted customers off the street and even spurned advertising, since he did not need it. The gentlewomen still competed to get in to see him, and around 1910 he obtained the title of supplier to the royal court. It was considered an accomplishment to make it into his workshop to work as a seamstress or as a dress model.

The zenith of his career was certainly in 1916 when he supplied formal clothes for 163 women at the coronation celebrations of Charles IV. The coronation gown of Queen Zita was even made in his workshop. So much revenue came in from his coronation dresses that he was able to purchase an upscale apartment building at 4 Apponyi Square.