Focus on Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth and discuss the Dress.
Terry's spectacular gown was designed by Alice Comyns Carr (1850–1927) and made in crochet by Ada Nettleship, using a soft green wool and blue tinsel yarn from Bohemia to create an effect similar to chain mail. It was embroidered with gold and decorated with 1,000 iridescent wing cases from the green jewel beetle, Sternocera aequisignata. The dress has a narrow border of Celtic designs worked out in red and white stones, is hemmed on all the edges, and girt with a gold belt. The design was inspired by a dress worn by Lady Randolph Churchill that was also trimmed with green beetle wing cases . It was designed to "look as much like soft chain armour... and yet have something that would give the appearance of the scales of a serpent".Terry wrote to her daughter Edith Craig, "I wish you could see my dresses. They are superb, especially the first one: green beetles on it, and such a cloak! The photographs give no idea of it at all, for it is in colour that it is so splendid. The dark red hair is fine. The whole thing is Rossetti—rich stained-glass effects."  Oscar Wilde quipped that "Lady Macbeth seems to be an economical housekeeper and evidently patronises local industries for her husband's clothes and servant's liveries, but she takes care to do all her own shopping in Byzantium."The play was very successful, running for more than six months to packed houses. The costume was reused on many later tours, crossing the Atlantic to visit North America at least twice.The dress was restored in a two-year project that began in 2009 when £50,000 had been raised to pay for the work. In 2011, after 1,300 hours of conservation work and a cost of £110,000, it was placed on display in Ellen Terry's former home, Smallhythe Place, near Tenterden in Kent. It has been described by the National Trust as "one of the most iconic and celebrated theatre costumes of the time".
Edith Craig Lady Randolph Churchill Ellen Terry Ada Nettleship National Trust Bohemia Oscar Wilde jewel beetle Lady Macbeth Alice Comyns Carr Tenterden crochet chain mail Sternocera aequisignata Smallhythe Place green jewel beetle Macbeth