Wedding Dres

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Mrs Manton

c. 1930

Historical information

Queen Victoria started the modern trend of wearing a white Wedding Dress, but other notable persons had worn white previously, Phillippa of England wore a tunic of white with a cloak of white silk bordered with squirrel and ermine when she married in 1409 and Mary, Queen of Scots wore a white dress to her first wedding in 1558.
Prior to the Victorian Era most wedding dresses were coloured, with some colours not worn because of superstition such as:
“Marry in Yellow, Disrespect your Fellow”
Although in Ancient Rome brides wore yellow veils that represented them as a torch and symbolised warmth.
Further, in ancient times brides were more likely to wear long robes in shades of Red or Violet.
In the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256BCE) in China bridal garments were black with a red trim, during the Han Period, black garments were worn, during China’s Tang Dynasty (approx. 618-906AD) it was fashionable for brides to wear green.
Up to Victorian times most brides did not have a new dress, but wore the finest they owned, generally their “Church” dress.
When Queen Victoria wore a dress of white Spitalfields Silk and Honiton Lace for her wedding to Prince Albert of Saxe, in 1840, the fashion of white Wedding Dresses was established.
Wedding Dresses were not widely sold as such until fairly recent times, they were generally made by a dressmaker (if finances allowed) or the Bride’s Mother or a family member.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-124-2022.20

Contextual Information

This dress was made by the mother of Mrs. Pat Manton, for her sister, Mrs. Manton’s aunt for her wedding in the 1930’s and is a wonderful example of the love and attention put into a Wedding Dress by an amateur seamstress for a relation

Keywords

Wedding Dress

Place made

Perth
Western Australia
Australia

Year

c. 1930

Busselton Historical Society

Organisation Details
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