A MIDNIGHT-BLUE velvet evening jacket dating from 1937 is the first couture addition to a Teesdale museum’s new collection.

Created by the famous couturier Elsa Schiaparelli for her autumn/winter collection, the richly embroidered item complete with rhinestones and three large turquoise star shaped-buttons will be housed at The Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle.

It has been chosen by fashion and textile curatorial assistant Hannah Jackson who has spent time in Paris and London researching for a new collection.

She has been awarded a £60,000 grant from the Art Fund to invest in a capsule wardrobe of French haute couture in homage to the museum’s co-founder and Frenchwoman, Joséphine Bowes.

Ms Jackson said: “We know that Joséphine was a collector, a patron of the arts, a society hostess, an actress, a painter and a devotee to fashion.

“She was among the many fashionable women who bought her clothes from Maison Worth on rue de la Paix Paris, aligning herself with figures such as the Empress Eugénie.”

The jacket was purchased from Kerry Taylor’s Passion for Fashion Auction in London.

Joanna Hashagen, museum curator of fashion and textiles, said: “This is a very exciting new acquisition for our fashion collection.”