court dress

The queen, the wife of King Charles III, was wearing a white dress at the All England Club, where the players on court dress all in white.

"Court dress is velvet coat and breeches, with cut steel buttons, a ruffle and a white waistcoat," says Sir Simon.

A portrait of Napoleon in court dress, giving the Sun King the side eye from one wall over, serves as an entertaining complement.

“He had a consciousness that was informed by the history of racism and his own experience of racism both growing up and in the industry. He was a very private person and a master of compartmentalization, largely as a reaction to that. He didn’t reveal himself to many beyond the news release. But on the bookshelves of his White Plains house were scholarly books on 17th-century French court dress next to first edition copies of Paul Robeson’s biography and Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s history of Black America.”

Accompanied by portraits of lace-wearing notables, it ranges from the early 1600s forward, starting with samplers, borders and collars, through the opulence of Spanish and French court dress to a phalanx of 21st-century haute couture.