Evening dress (attributed to Pauline Potter)
Pauline de Rothschild · c. 1949
Pauline de Rothschild
- Custom eveningwear
- Theatrical dress
Pauline de Rothschild worked in fashion under the name Pauline Potter before becoming widely known as a writer and interior decorator. During the 1940s and early 1950s, she designed custom clothes for Hattie Carnegie, connecting an American fashion business with a taste for luxurious textiles and theatrical elegance.
Five looks to know
Collection selection
Evening dress (attributed to Pauline Potter)
c. 1949 · Season not documented
The Met identifies the designer as probably Pauline Potter. A sheer bodice and skirt create the dress’s light, floating effect.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection
Collection selection
Silk suit attributed to Pauline Potter
Autumn/Winter 1949–50
The Met attributes this Hattie Carnegie silk suit to Pauline Potter, the designer later known as Pauline de Rothschild.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Collection selection
Summer dress for Hattie Carnegie
Summer 1946
A silk dress designed for Hattie Carnegie and donated to the Met by Pauline Potter herself in 1950.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Exhibition photograph
Black evening dress attributed to Pauline Potter
c. 1950
The rightmost dress is one of two attributed to Potter for Hattie Carnegie in FIT’s Designing Women exhibition.
The Museum at FIT
Collection selection
Striped evening dress attributed to Pauline Potter
1940–59 · Hattie Carnegie
The Met attributes this Hattie Carnegie evening dress probably to Pauline Potter, later Baroness de Rothschild.
The Metropolitan Museum of ArtCollections & archive pieces
1 collections represented · 1 pieceSeason not documented
1 piece
About Pauline de Rothschild
Her later reputation for imaginative interiors can obscure this professional design work. The Metropolitan Museum of Art cautiously attributes an evening dress of about 1949 to her; its sheer layers and beaded details offer a useful example while preserving that uncertainty.