History of American weddings 1860-1960

Tässä englanniksi (jostain kumman syystä) teksti, jonka olen tehnyt näyttelyyn yliopistomme D.O.D.D centeriin. Näyttely kertoo Amerikkalaisesta hääpukumuodista vuosilta 1860-1960

Brief overview of the exhibition where I have been one of the curators, held at the D.O.D.D Center, University of Connecticut

One of the most precious events in life is a wedding, commonly symbolized by the wedding dress. The white bridal gown has not always been the most desirable color for the bride. White has generally been worn to symbolize purity and virginity, yet white was not always a fashionable bridal color. The white wedding dress has itsroots back in the middle ages in Western Europe, worn by aristocratic and royal brides, who commonly wore white together with gold or silver embroidery.  In United States, one of the earliest examples of a white wedding gown is from 1800, when Decima Cecilia Snubrich was married in Charleston, South Carolina.   

 In the 18^th and 19^th century, women found inspiration for their wedding attire from fashion plates and dolls. Starting with Marie Antoinette and her designer Rose Bertin, replica dolls were sent around France each month with a new fashion for dressmakers to copy.  Since America was more closely aligned with France rather than England in the late 18^th century, some of these dolls found their way to America.  Wedding dress always followed the highest fashion of that time, but during the time of the Revolution fashions traveled slowly.  In 1815 the steamboat Savannah made its first return journey to Europe setting the path for a faster way to import goods from Europe.  Not only fashion templates and dolls were imported, but fabrics, trimmings and accessories arrived from Europe in half of the time. News describing European royal weddings traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in a far shorter time and offered inspiration to American brides. 

Pale colors became popular in the beginning of the 19^th century with the Neo-classical revival.  Empress Josephine was married in a Neo-classical white gown with gold metallic embroidery.  Consequently pale colors became common in wedding dresses for all social classes. Soft materials, such as (tarlatan is equivalent to silk marquisette and stiff like organza today), soft cotton muslin similar to voile today, silk tulle, softer more supple satin and finely woven lace were used in pale colors in order to create the most desirable fragile looking image for the bride at the time.  The French magazine Journal des Dames presented the first fashion plate of a white wedding dress in 1813.

 When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840, she wore a white wedding dress of heavy silk satin woven in Spitalfields in east London. The gown had a low cut neckline and short puffed sleeves, trimmed with hand made lace from the West Country town of Honiton.  In so doing she chose to support the English lace industry as well as the Spitalfields silk industry. The Queen’s wedding picture was spread around the world and the style of her virginal white wedding gown, unusual at that time, was eventually adopted by American brides about a decade later after being publicized by Godey’s Lady’s Book. The colored wedding dress was still a choice for many brides throughout the 19^th century, if they wanted a more practical gown that could be worn later for another occasion. Women, who had less money to spend,might choose their “best dress” for the wedding and it was usually made from anothercolor and not “impractical” white. 

Because the Industrial Revolution made cloth cheaper and faster to produce, thelower social classes had access to the finer fabrics. Factories in industrial centers like Willimantic and Manchester in Connecticut had a robust textile trade. Silk manufactures in Mansfield and Manchester also provided thread and other supplies.Although most of the early silk production was imported directly to France, it began to be readily available locally. This way expensive cloths like silk didn’t have to beimported. In addition, there was a thriving business for women and children makinghand made buttons, hats, trimmings and suspenders for local merchants.  The popular fashion for many pearl buttons can be attributed to this.

 During the second half of the 19^th century, brides could get their inspiration from magazines and newspapers, which published articles describing higher social class and aristocratic weddings. Articles often had detailed descriptions of the bride’s dress, wedding guests and information about the reception for everyone to read and pursue. In the 1890’s, mail- order catalogues made it possible for every bride across the country to access the latest wedding fashion. Sears and Roebuck’s catalogue introduced wedding gowns and accessories as well as fabrics to make the gowns. Home sewing was still necessary most common, however ready-to–wear garments became more and more popular after the First World War. In addition to mail-order catalogues, fashion magazines offered patterns to make a wedding gown and also offered advice about wedding customs and traditions. Isaac Singer’s introduction of the sewing machine in the 1850´s speeded up the sewing process, but wedding dresses were still slow to produce because of the enormous amount of detailing in them. Brides started to make their wedding dresses early, mostly because people often lived outside of towns and it took a day or two just to purchase the material for the dress. It was not uncommon for a seamstress to take up residence with the bride’s family during the fabrication of the gown.  This could extend up to two months depending on how many gowns were being produced for the wedding.

It was not until the 1930’s that the concept of a white wedding gown was truly established. A variety of white fabrics were introduced in the shops, that were reserved for wedding gowns. In 1934, a new magazine So You’re Going to Be Married(later renamed The Brides Magazine) was founded and it was dedicated to the bride.This magazine offered hundreds of pages full of bridal fashion, advice and information to the bride. Also during this decade, professional wedding consultants established a new market and weddings became a big business.

 This gorgeous white wedding gown has one bodice with very wide neckline. Following the fashion of the time, shoulders were dropped and there are “Marie” sleeves puffed in tulle. Fitted bodice has button fastening at the front and also separate belt by the waist with small bow at the centre back. Huge sating skirt is cartridge pleated to allow the immense circumference to fit into the small waistband. The skirt front has the tiers of net and small daisy on both sides of the dress hem. This fabric is called Paper Satin because of its crisp quality.

Wearer: Mary Darcy, daughter of Henry Darcy, when she married Edmund D. Halsey in Grace Church in Newark on 27^th of May in 1869.

This wedding dress from 1878 is made of white satin. It has a long train trimmed around in ruffles and lace. Front skirt has several layers of unique chenille fringe. The bodice is fitted, it has a high collar and it is fastened at the front with buttons. There is additional pleated decoration attached to the collar and to the arms. Wearer: Elizabeth Cushing married Dr.Lewis Rogers in 1878 in NY 

New sleeve style was introduced in the beginning of the century, when fullness of the sleeve was in it’s peak and turned into Leg O’ Mutton- sleeve. In this dress, sleeves have more fullness gained with layered lace ruffles. Dress bodice has a lavish lace ruffle in two layers to match the sleeves and collar.

The fabric is weighted silk.  The process of "weighting" silk fabric is the addition of metallic salts during processing for the purpose of increasing the weight of the finished goods.  It improves the drape of the fabric. 

Wearer: Nettie K. Bowman, who married Alexander Richmond on September 13^th in 1894 at North Church Springfield, MA.  

The fabric for this wedding gown was bought from Paris while Elizabeth Conrow Valentine was studying at the Sorbonne.  She and her sister were studying abroad so their mother accompanied them as their chaperone and had her own apartment in Paris.

The Battenberg lace for this dress was purchased in Paris and it is a valuable piece of Belgian produced lace.  

Sleeves, monobosom and overlay for this dress are made of fine silk tulle. A ruffle is added around the long train and it is worn over a cream silk pleated petticoat.  

The gown was never worn for a wedding, but was worn for a ball. 

This white satin wedding dress has a stand-up collar and decolte made of fine lace. It has empire waistline with stitched pleats at the front and back. There are pearl tassels and heavier lace at the front. Satin skirt is narrow and it has a slight train. Heavier elaborate lace is also attached to the bodice and ¾ length sleeves.

Wearer: Unknown

This cream silk chiffon wedding dress has a fashionable boat neckline and short kimono sleeve. Waist is dropped down and decorated with wide belt and skirt length is to calf. There are silk chiffon suspenders with small satin flowers on top. Skirt has satin ribbon spirals and sleeves have matching satin ribbon in the ends.

Wearer: Esther Abigail Clark wore this wedding dress when she married Elmer Gordon Jones on 

September 1^st, 1921

This figure hugging wedding dress has lace all the way at the front and back down to the knee and it has V- neckline. Short lace sleeves have long detachable sleeves made out of fine tulle. Skirt underneath the lace is ankle length with train and it is cut in full circle to create a bias cut.

Wearer: Unknown

This satin wedding dress is the style of later 1940’s. It has got fitted bodice with long sleeves and round neckline with lace. Low neckline has been made less revealing by adding chiffon to chest and back neck area.

This white wedding dress is made out of silk organza with elaborate eyelets. Top is fitted and has square neckline plus short sleeves. Skirt is full, mixing eyelets and organza tiers and it is pleated from the waist. This dress is worn over an underskirt made out of taffeta.

Wearer: Janet Locke wore this dress on her wedding in July 10^th, 1954, in Wethersfield, CT

This A- line gown from Abraham & Strauss is made out of ivory satin and lace. It has extremely long detachable train that is two layers of silk tulle and guipure lace motifs around the centre and on the edge. Train is attached to the gown by the shoulder blades. Its scooped neckline is elaborately finished with lace and it continues all the way down to its long sleeves.

Wearer: Sheila Rosen wore this dress at her wedding to Richard Siegel in December 17^th, 1967.