Wedding dresses 1775-2014
What was lovely
about this show was that often it was known who the dress was worn by and
therefore exactly when it was worn. For the later years there was also a
photograph of it being worn. All the dresses were given slightly romantic
titles such as “An October Wedding”. The display case had line drawing of churches
at the back and often this was of a church where one of the dresses had been
worn.
In the early
cases I loved a dress worn by Mary Northcliffe
in York in 1807. I was a very Jane Austen empire line white muslin with
asymmetric embroidery, also in white, to give it the feel of a toga. There was
also an amazing dress form the late 1800’s with fringes of pearl down the
front.
One whole case
was given over to Margaret Whigham’s dress from 1933, designed by Norman
Hartnell and worn for a big society wedding. It was shown with a film of the
event.
Upstairs
concentrated on the period since 1960 and included a number of designer and
celebrity dresses. I loved some of the 1970s dresses which had a rather
historical feel about them including one from 1978 which drew on Fortuny’s
pleated ideas. It was also interesting to see the Duchess of Cornwall’s dress
which was much cleverer in the flesh that one the TV. The coat was a pale blue
with a gold shimmer and the hat in the shape of waves of corn was beautiful.
Most of all
though I was very moved to see a dress very like the one my Mother wore and
from the same year, 1957. The one on show was by, I think Normal Hartnell, my
Mother’s was not. However it did make me realise that she had been the height of
fashion!
Review
Evening Standard
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