The Bridesmaid Dress

November 7, 2020November 6, 2020 / Adam Lid / 2 Comments

Bridesmaid dresses have been a staple of weddings for over 100 years and even today are a fixture for most weddings. For the typical wedding involving two or more bridesmaids, it is standard for the bridesmaids to be wearing dresses of a uniform style and color, thereby providing a canvas for the the bride to show brightly (after all, it is HER day… 🙂 ). However, the bridesmaid dress is often of a style that pleases nobody and in recent years there’s been a lot of resistance to the idea to the point where they’re being dispensed with for some.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries, wedding customs evolved and by the early 1900s, the typical wedding that we know today had taken form to include the distinct bridesmaid dress. Here are some examples:

Wedding Party c. 1900

Judging from the dress and hat styles, this was probably taken sometime around 1910 or so and what’s striking about it is that the bridesmaid dresses s are fairly uniform. While they appear to be of one style and made from the same material, there are variations in the trim on each woman’s skirt.

And here’s a few more from roughly the same time:

Victorian wedding group by lovedaylemon, via Flickr

In this picture, the bride is almost indistinguishable from the bridesmaids except for the hat.

It’s an interesting to see that uniform bridesmaid dresses were a thing a hundred years ago. In future posts, we’ll look a little further back so stay tuned! 🙂

Taking A Step Back To 1878…

September 20, 2020August 4, 2022 / Adam Lid / 1 Comment

And for a change of pace, we step back a few decades to circa 1878 with this wonderful Mid-Bustle Era/Natural Form day dress that’s identified as a wedding dress¹:

Wedding dress, c. 1878; Metropolitan Museum of Art (2009.300.18a, b)

Below is a nice close-up showing details of the fashion fabric and some of the details.

Side Profile

This dress is constructed of an embroidered wine colored stripped silk satin for the overskirt and bodice combined with a purple silk satin for the underskirt, bodice front and cuffs. Finally around the cuffs, there’s a think band of the purple silk sating that’s been pleated and finished off with white lace. In terms of silhouette, this one is cylindrical, characteristic of the Natural Form/Mid-Bustle Era and has no train. The bodice is a cuirass style, falling over the hips. The decorate effect on the underskirt hem is interesting, employing a combination of pleating, ruching, and use of the stripped fashion fabric in the form of vertical tabs running along the upper hem.

Now, as for the dress being a wedding dress, this is a very possible. Unfortunately, there’s no documentation posted online at the Met Museum website and we can only assume that there is documentation but that it didn’t make it online for reasons unknown. But nevertheless, this dress could have been used as a wedding dress in that during the late 19th Century, the use of white as THE wedding dress color was not a rigid convention; a wedding dress was often a bride’s best dress and was meant for wear long after the wedding. Moreover, the idea that one would have a specific dress to be worn only on the wedding day and then put away was also not the norm and in fact, was simply not feasible for most people, not to mention that it was viewed as wasteful. The idea of the one-use wedding dress would start to develop towards the end of the 19th Century but only by the very rich.² Ultimately, this dress presents a classic late 1870s/early 1880s day look and works for a variety of social occasions. 🙂

Some More From Pingat…

July 26, 2020July 24, 2020 / Adam Lid / Leave a comment

Lately, it seems that Emile Pingat has become the subject of interest for us here at Lily Absinthe and combined with our love for 1890s fashions in general, we’ve been finding all manner of Pingat’s designs. For today’s consideration is this circa 1894 ball gown:

Pingat, Ball Gown, c. 1894; Museum of Fine Arts Boston (56.816)

Rear View

As ball gowns go, this is a relatively simple design with a minimum of trim (mostly beading on the front bodice), relying instead on combinations of lace, and silk satin to achieve its effect. With roses strategically placed on the skirt front, collar and shoulder, there are pops of color that offset the blush pink/ivory silk satin. The gigot sleeves combined with gored skirt definitely place this dress safely in the mid-1890s and create the classic hourglass style that was typical of the period. Overall, as with many of Pingat’s designs, this is elegant and clean and would definitely make an excellent bridal gown. Although best known for his outerwear, Pingat also produced many elegant dress designs- ball gowns, evening/reception dresses and day dresses and this is just one excellent example.

An 1890s Wedding Dress

July 23, 2020July 22, 2020 / Adam Lid / 3 Comments

Today we take a look at an 1890 wedding dress from the V&A Museum that not only has extensive provenance, but it even has a picture of the original owner, a one Cara Leland Huttleston Rogers, wearing the dress on her wedding day on November 17, 1890. This is a rare treat indeed. To begin, here’s some pictures:

Francis O’Neill/Stern Brothers. Wedding Dress, c. 1890; Victoria & Albert Museum (T.276,A-F-1972)

This dress has the simple, clean lines characteristic of 1890s styles with the addition of a train. The dress is constructed of a cream-colored corded silk for both skirt and bodice. The skirt is relatively simple and unadorned except for some artfully arranged swagging along the hem, punctuated by rosettes. However, the bodice is a completely different matter- built on the same cream-colored corded silk, the bodice is framed in the front by a embroidered gold/mustard brown-colored floral appliques jeweled with pearls running along the middle of the bodice and continuing up to follow an open neckline. Below is a picture of the bride:

Cara Leland Huttleston Rogers, wearing the dress on her wedding day on November 17, 1890.

The neckline is further accented by a row of ruffled silk chiffon leading up to the shoulders. The shoulders are decorated with upright panels that further continue the decorative trim design and are heavily jeweled with pearls. The upper sleeves are ruched and while there’s fullness towards the top, it lacks of the extensive gigot sleeves so characteristic of the mid-1890s. Naturally, the cuffs are also finished with more silk chiffon. Finally, the peplums on the bodice are also accented by the jeweled embroidered applique strips that harmonize with the rest of the bodice’s decorative trim. Below are some close-ups of the bodice:

The decorative appliques are even more extensive on the bodice back:

The decorative design on the bodice is very unique and it definitely attracts the eye to the upper dress and puts focus on the bride. The relatively neutral cream skirt and bodice provide a blank canvas for the decorative design. This dress design is definitely unique and is an interesting take on bridal dress designs of the period.

And Something For The Bridal Line…

July 12, 2020July 11, 2020 / Karin McKechnie-Lid / 1 Comment

I‘ve been slowly building a dress sample based on the styles of tea gowns and lingerie dresses from the 1899-1905 era for our Bridal line. This one is all fine sheer cottons, mostly pearl white worn over buttercream yellow, antique lace front panels and insertion, and dyed to match silk ribbon. Our original idea was to make this from white over blue…and then a friend gifted me with a bolt of vintage white and yellow dotted Swiss, and everything changed! 🙂