Antique wedding dresses

acceber

VFG Member
I thought I would share these gorgeous dresses I got recently. They are both in large gift boxes with labels on them that say who wore them and when. While I’m sensitive to the privacy of people and their names, especially when they are deceased, the labels make it pretty easy to date the dresses. They have been beautifully preserved. This first one was worn in 1936 and it has the most fantastic sleeves.

I have taken to posing some of my dresses outside in front of my rustic fence.

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This second dress was worn by the mother of the bride that wore the 1936 dress. This dress is labeled 1909. It’s two small for my dress form so it’s not buttoned.

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The museum won't even consider taking a wedding dress unless there is a name associated with the dress. If their privacy was that important, they would have removed them before donating. Great to have the mother and her daughter's wedding dresses.

That’s very interesting to know and it’s a good point! I didn’t think this privacy was so much an issue with the names on the dresses as much as whoever it was that was recently deceased that resulted in the sale of these family heirlooms. It’s so sad to me, that for whatever reason, they didn’t stay with the family, but maybe there was nobody left.
 
do you submit several photos of various angles or just one front facing photo?
Almost all the entries are one photo per dress - in a few cases, I added a second photo of a special detail, like a bustle, or perhaps the sleeve detail on your lace dress. If you browse through some of the decades, you'll probably get a sense of which photo/s to submit.
 
This is the only information I have for the second dress from 1909. Is this enough? The surname is Menig.

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I love that "shingled pleat" shoulder treatment on the lace gown. Often you see more emphasis on the neckline or collar than on the shoulders suring that era. What great finds.
 
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