The first item in the new exhibition at Chatsworth House celebrating the legacy of the late Duchess of Devonshire is a tweed suit. The youngest Mitford sister was a chicken lover and the bottom few inches – poultry head-height – have been intentionally dishevelled as if ravaged by her Buff Cochins and Welsummers. The exhibition is an imagined conversation between Deborah Cavendish and the British-Turkish designer Erdem Moralıoğlu, whose last spring/summer show was a love letter to “Debo”, her wardrobe and the estate in Derbyshire of which she was chatelaine until her death, aged 94, in 2014.
Items from her wardrobe punctuate Moralıoğlu’s designs inspired by them – the tweed suit is the latter. Practical and glamorous, she fits the mould of Moralıoğlu’s inspirations – he often looks to unconventional women throughout history and this exhibition, complete with an evocation of his studio, is lifting the lid on Erdem, a “fashion nerd’” and thoughtful designer, and his process. Taking the duchess’s wardrobe has allowed for fun, elegance and poetry.
From her own collection, there are no-nonsense white-collared shirts, elegant opera gloves and chic yellow taffeta evening shoes. There is a small clutch in the shape of a hen that looks like it could have been teleported to Derbyshire from a recent Jonathan Anderson collection but, again, belonged to the duchess. Designs inspired by her love of chickens sit alongside those inspired by her other love, El.
