Something Borrowed, something Bizarre? Help with strange wedding dress.

laurenm

laurenm

Registered Guest
Hi All,
1. Is this a 'unique' homemade, curious, 1960's 70's wedding dress or does it have more descriptive, specific name?
2. What type of feathers are these? Are they real?
3. What do you call a train that is attached at the shoulders?

It's very petite.
Thanks again,
Lauren
 
pics? The train sounds like it would look like this:
images
camelot-01-g.jpg

Vanessa Redgrave in Camelot (1967) one of my all time favourite films.
 
Oopsie Daisy....I'm not working well today.
 

Attachments

  • weirdwed1.jpg
    weirdwed1.jpg
    48.7 KB · Views: 298
  • weirdwedtop.jpg
    weirdwedtop.jpg
    81.2 KB · Views: 300
  • weirdwedclosetop.jpg
    weirdwedclosetop.jpg
    90.5 KB · Views: 282
  • weirdwedtrain.jpg
    weirdwedtrain.jpg
    55.9 KB · Views: 279
  • weirdwedtrainlace.jpg
    weirdwedtrainlace.jpg
    67 KB · Views: 253
Hmm, I'm wondering if the small pink flowers & marabou feather were added later for fancy dress...does the stitching for these look original?
 
Yes, it looks like the little daisies are add ons and that someone has possibly cut the neckline and sleeves to fit and 'overdubbed' feathers on the newly created seams!
I don't tend to examine the seams of such 'anomalies' as much as I should.
Thanks.
 
If the daisies match the bodice trim, and they look like they may, I'd say they were original. The feathers - hard to say. It looks like a 1960s winter wedding dress to me.

Hollis
 
I have seen daisies like that on 60s wedding dresses (to early 70s). To me they look orginal.

Also, although the marabou seems 'fancy dress' in this case, my mother in law actually had marabou on her wedding dress (Liverpool, early 70s) - so it was around. However I fully agree that it looks added on here, just because of where it is on the sleeves etc'.
 
um, in the UK it's dressing up like they do for Halloween in the US, except it can be for any party reason.

The reason I thought the flowers may have been added on is that I would expect them to continue round the 'waistcoat' line in the centre of the lace flowers, rather than the centre.
 
i love the photo.
the purple flowers are not very well sewn on and the maribou trim at the neckline is pretty roughly stitched so I think they must both be alterations.
 
We use the term "fancy dress" here in Australia too: I hadn't realised it wasn't universally used. I always find regional terms interesting (and good to know the local variant).
 
Hi Nicole, one of my favorite topics for sure....dialects, regional variants, sociolinguistics in general. Definitely good to know alternated terms. I've got some British friends and Australian relatives, so I pick up a few here and there. Maybe we could do a little dictionary.
Jumper.
Fancy dress.
Trainers.
Plim soles (I think I remember that from some book I read as a child...is that actually used still?)
Knickers. etc
 
Hello,

I just want to add a little something so there is no confusion on using the term "fancy dress" in reference to historical dress/fashion/costume. Several folks here have commented that in the UK and Australia this term is applied to any costume party or Halloween type event, and that is something I was not aware of. That is good to know! However, the translation given above [ UK English to US English translation: fancy dress party = costume party] is not quite accurate, as in the USA, a Fancy Dress event was not the same thing as a costume party, and those terms are not interchangeable when referring to historical/vintage/antique fashion and dress. Here in the United Sates and in Canada (they had them in Europe too of course), a Fancy Dress Ball was very different from just a costume party, masquerade party or Halloween event. The term Fancy Dress meant a Fancy Dress Ball, and was a very lavish, well attended,carefully planned and orchestrated ball which had a definite theme to which the invited guests were required to follow. Almost always given by the very rich or the aristocracy, these opulent displays of wealth were often the best entertainment event of the "Season" for the upper classes, many of which became legendary. It was attended by powerful and important people and was carefully laid out, with grand music, dancing, champagne, and extravagant food. Guest often spent thousands of dollars (tens of thousands) on elaborate costumes of the finest silks, velvets, gilded threads, jewels, etc. Everyone at the ball wore a costume which was following the theme, often depicting a historical person, fictional character from literature or historical myth, or a certain era in history. If you find an antique garment which would be classed as Fancy Dress today, you are very lucky indeed.

I know that terms change meaning over time, and different countries use the terms differently, and not everyone is a stickler for accuracy when they deal in vintage clothing, so it is no biggie. But, I did want to share this bit of information so as not to have people start calling every Halloween or costume party garment a Fancy Dress costume.
 
Barbara that's a wonderful piece of information, I think I have seen one of these proper 'Fancy dress' events depicted in tv series before (thinking of an episode of the old Upstairs Downstairs I watched the other day, where the theme was Liberty and Freedom)
 
Yes, we had fancy dress balls in the UK, too. They were particularly lavish at certain decadent times amongst the super rich and aristocracy and their roots go back to the Tudors (I would love to see a costume from then!). Many elements of them are tied up in colonial, food and political history and records are a godsend for domestic history buffs.

In terms of accuracy, the term 'fancy dress' has been used to cover all (from intricate costume to plain old black-dress-and-a-paper-witches-hat) in the UK for over 100 years in popular culture. We have had 'fancy dress shops' (affordable costume shops, distinct from costumiers) for a century. So when we use it to mean this, it isn't so much an inaccuracy as an established regional variation present in the dictionary. As someone with a background in costume, I know there is a clear difference between a 'costume for a fancy dress ball' and a 'fancy dress costume'. The element 'fancy dress' merely means an outfit clearly representing a theme or character (in the same way, I suppose, as the term 'day dress' means a dress worn in the day); in order for it to connect to vintage, an era or whatever in my mind I would also need dates and details. Thus, a fancy dress costume could be a child's paper mask, or an intricately beaded piece from an opulant ball in the 1920s... it encompasses both in UK English, much as 'winter coat', 'swimsuit' etc' might.

One thing to note, however, is that the term 'fancy dress' has been used in a derogatory manner in the UK, against vintage dressers by ignorant oiks (mockingly shouting 'oi, is it Halloween?' at us when we are shopping, for example). Equally irritating are parties with a decade theme to which people wear ill fitted fake 'flapper' dresses orfake facial hair - marketed to vintage fans as vintage and to others as fancy dress fun. Therefore it is a term which many of us feel defensive and upset about if used to refer to anything BAR actual costume party wear, and as a rule of thumb unless we're talking about specifics I am wary of its use.

Rue_de_la_Paix said:
Hello,

I just want to add a little something so there is no confusion on using the term "fancy dress" in reference to historical dress/fashion/costume. Several folks here have commented that in the UK and Australia this term is applied to any costume party or Halloween type event, and that is something I was not aware of. That is good to know! However, the translation given above [ UK English to US English translation: fancy dress party = costume party] is not quite accurate, as in the USA, a Fancy Dress event was not the same thing as a costume party, and those terms are not interchangeable when referring to historical/vintage/antique fashion and dress. Here in the United Sates and in Canada (they had them in Europe too of course), a Fancy Dress Ball was very different from just a costume party, masquerade party or Halloween event. The term Fancy Dress meant a Fancy Dress Ball, and was a very lavish, well attended,carefully planned and orchestrated ball which had a definite theme to which the invited guests were required to follow. Almost always given by the very rich or the aristocracy, these opulent displays of wealth were often the best entertainment event of the "Season" for the upper classes, many of which became legendary. It was attended by powerful and important people and was carefully laid out, with grand music, dancing, champagne, and extravagant food. Guest often spent thousands of dollars (tens of thousands) on elaborate costumes of the finest silks, velvets, gilded threads, jewels, etc. Everyone at the ball wore a costume which was following the theme, often depicting a historical person, fictional character from literature or historical myth, or a certain era in history. If you find an antique garment which would be classed as Fancy Dress today, you are very lucky indeed.

I know that terms change meaning over time, and different countries use the terms differently, and not everyone is a stickler for accuracy when they deal in vintage clothing, so it is no biggie. But, I did want to share this bit of information so as not to have people start calling every Halloween or costume party garment a Fancy Dress costume.
Click to expand...
 
This is interesting stuff. I didn't know that the term fancy dress was used in the USA, and that it has a different historical meaning.

My translation was meant about the present day, the term 'fancy dress party' as its used in the UK today, is similar to or the same as 'costume party' as it's used in the USA today. 'Costume party' is not much used here.

so as not to have people start calling every Halloween or costume party garment a Fancy Dress costume.
Click to expand...
As Perdita says, in the UK nowadays, every Halloween/costume party outfit is called a fancy dress costume, that's exactly what people call them. Even if you've just taken a bedsheet, turned it into a toga, and called yourself Julius Caesar, it's a fancy dress costume. As has been said, it's a regional difference.

one of my favorite topics for sure....dialects, regional variants, sociolinguistics in general
Click to expand...

Me too, a very favourite subject!

Also interesting in this light, is how the word 'costume' has changed, which I think was discussed in another thread recently.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top