Afternoon Tea Week: The Tea Dress

The origins of the Tea Dress are linked to the fashion of Afternoon Tea - a tradition believed to have been started by Anna Maria Stanhope, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, in 1841. It began with Stanhope's daily ritual of tea and a light snack to fill the gap between lunch and dinner. She would invite friends to join her, thus creating a new social event that became an important part of British society, still enjoyed today.

When Anna’s habit became public knowledge, the craze of taking Afternoon Tea spread like wildfire throughout the upper classes. Ladies across the land would dress up in their finery and visit each other’s houses to have a gossip over tea. Books at the time contained entire chapters devoted to the proper etiquette of Afternoon Tea. The Tea Dress started life as a garment made solely for informal entertaining within the home - not worn with corsets, they were a form of liberation for the women of the time, showing the beginnings of a slightly more relaxed style of women’s clothing.

Below are a few examples of dresses from June Victor at Vintage Modes that would look splendid at an Afternoon Tea event.

1970s Bellville Sassoon dress

Crepe navy print dress

Peter Robinson 1970s dress

1940s brown polka dot dress

1940s cotton dress

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