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 18th and 19th 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 18th 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 19th 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 19th 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 19th 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 27th 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 13th 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 1st,
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 10th,
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 17th, 1967.
