This dress was really cool
when Joyce Daniels bought it
over fifty years ago.
Joyce loved clothes.
She wore this dress
to enter a fashion show.

Joyce danced and partied too.
Her dresses swayed and swirled
on nights out
at dance halls in central London.

Joyce talks about clothes shopping:

"I was very fashion conscious,
but I had no time to make clothes.
I used to go to Derry and Toms
in Kensington High Street
and a very expensive shop in Coulsdon.
And there was this shop
on the corner of Mint Walk -
the Louvre.
That's where I bought
this evening dress.
It was for dances
and special occasions.
We used to go dancing
some Saturday nights.
All types of dancing,
waltz, foxtrot, twostep, jiving, bebop,
whatever dance was going on at the time."

"We used to like the big bands.
We'd go and hear Humphrey Lyttleton
and Chris Barber
in concert wherever they were playing,
either Hammersmith Palais,
or the Lyceum,
or Victory House in Holborn.
That was very good,
because you meet
a lot of your own people there.
And then we had local home parties,
that's how we used to keep together."

Joyce moved to London in 1952.
She came from Guyana.
In the mid 1950s
she was living in Croydon
and working hard as a nurse
at Cane Hill Hospital.

Dressing-up, looking good and dancing
was a great way of meeting friends
and new people
who had also moved here
from the Caribbean.

If you are interested in
the history of fashion
the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)
is a good starting point.

A visit to the main museum is FREE,
although you may have to pay for
some special exhibitions and events.

Visit:
V&A South Kensington
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL

Tel 020 7942 2000

Their website also has
a special fashion section
with links to other museums in the area.

www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/