My home has a ladies dressing room between the master bedroom and the bathroom. It has a built in vanity, full length mirror, ironing board, storage drawers, shelves and hanging spaces. All the original cabinetry remains intact and I assume the square, clear, plastic handles are also original. It serves little purpose for me, as I will never own enough clothes to fill all the closets. Instead, I use the gentlemen’s closet inside the master bedroom.
The novelty of a ladies dressing room is not lost on me. A few years ago the famous/infamous dressing room of Arabella Wortham went on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Arabella Wortham was the mistress of the fabulously wealthy Collis P. Huntington (many things in NYC and California bear the Huntington name). The home was located on west 54th street in Manhattan.
The room is especially ironic because, after Arabella married the recently widowed Collis, she sold her home to the equally wealthy John D. Rockefeller Sr. and his wife. The Rockefeller family was devoutly religious, so I can only imagine what Mrs. Rockefeller thought using this room and sitting on the furniture custom designed for Arabella. Do you suppose she must have wondered what it was like to be a mistress of a married man? I don’t think so. That she chose to not make any changes to the room and kept it completely intact is incredible. Her son, John D. Rockefeller Jr. later had the house torn down and donated the ground for the Museum of Modern Art. The Rockefeller family further moved uptown to a palatial apartment at 740 Park Avenue. When the house was dismantled the main rooms were sent to museums and can be seen in several museums.
To my knowledge my dressing room does not have a noteworthy past.
A soapstone figure I brought back from a trip to China. 
The built in dressing table, with mirrored top. 
A mixed stone bird from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The original plans for the house identify the room. Only one modification was made to the original plans. The closet for hats and shoes is placed differently than what was drawn in the plans.
The closet for hats and shoes is behind the built in ironing board. With three sinks in the basement and an oversized laundry room, I believe this ironing board was used only for last minute touch ups and not for the regular weekly ironing.
The built in ironing board and the door to the hat and shoe closet. 
The ironing board extended with the full length mirror in the background. 
The inside of the hat and shoe closet. The upper shelves were for hats, while the lower shelves were for shoes.
The other storage closets are as equally well planned as the hat and shoe closet.
Hanging space behind the left door. 
Drawers behind the right door.
The largest closet in the room has unique hanging rods, suspended from the ceiling of the closet.
Hanging rod suspended from the ceiling. 
The hanging rod pulled out.
The unique hanging rods were not something I had seen before. Our neighbor told us they were used to hang ball gowns. We always had a laugh when we showed the empty closet to visitors, because we don’t own any gowns.
Which brings me to the title of this blog, Say yes to the dress. There is a crazy television show featuring women who shop for their wedding dresses at an exclusive store. They pay upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars for this frivolous once in a lifetime, but seemingly all important garment.
Because our hanging closet is empty of ball gowns, several of our visitors have remarked we should buy some. That is something I never thought I would do, until this week!
I volunteer with a non-profit organization each week. When I went in on Wednesday, they had gowns on display. A gift from a famous singer/composer. Well, this sounded interesting to me. Ann Hampton Callaway had donated numerous gowns to this charity and they were selling them. I pondered for a while and decided to say yes to the dress!
Ann Hampton Callaway was the composer and singer of the theme song to the television show, The Nanny.
Ann is a solo performer, but has performed with Liza Minnelli. Her rich voice is perfect for the jazz and blues classics. She is listed as the only composer to have worked with Cole Porter. Having a dress to just hang in the closet never seemed interesting. Having a memento from such an amazing artist hanging in the closet is not interesting, it also supported charity!
A black lace dress. 
A detail showing the bead work and feathers on the dress.
Now instead of showing our guests an empty closet, a lovely black evening dress, by Liancarlo Couture for Neiman Marcus, awaits and is a shrine to Ann Hampton Callaway. I sincerely hope she doesn’t mind.
Ever the contrarian, October is the month most people talk about coming out of the closet and me, well, I’m focused on mine – go figure.
How delightful!
Thank you Amy. I hope all is well for you and you have enjoyed Fall.
I DO miss my closet room. It had space for my entire wardrobe. The handles on the doors and drawers were not original. I changed them. I don’t know whatever became of the original ones. Underneath the mirror on the dressing table is a templet for a new mirror should you ever need it. I cracked the mirror years ago and was happily surprised to find it. I put it right back under the new mirror. (just in case)
Thank you Deborah, good to know about the handles. Hopefully, I won’t crack the mirror, but things like that always happen. You and Barry thought of everything. Happy Fall.
Elegant black lace worn by a song bird is a perfect first dress for your closet. Makes me smile. Am longing for those black lace occasions to return.
Hi Kathleen,
Yes, it will be nice to return to a time of unhindered social occasions! You are always so good at them.