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| Judy Chicago at the New Museum in NYC as seen in The New York Times |
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| Costume Exhibition at Winterthur Museum Sept 9, 2023 - January 7, 2024 “In
1964, The Saturday Evening Post referred to fashion designer Ann Lowe as
‘Society’s Best-Kept Secret.’ Although Lowe had been designing couture-quality
gowns for America’s most prominent debutantes, heiresses, actresses, and
society brides—including Jacqueline Kennedy, Olivia de Havilland, and Marjorie
Merriweather Post—for decades, she remained virtually unknown to the wider
public. Since then, too little recognition has been given to her influence on
American fashion. “Ann Lowe’s recently emerging visibility as a designer stands in contrast to much of her career and the countless unrecognized Black dressmakers and designers who have contributed to American fashion for generations, including her own grandmother and mother. She blazed a path for others to follow and her legacy is still felt in fashion culture.” [Continue reading exhibition text.] |
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| Jacqueline Kennedy in her wedding gown designed by Ann Lowe, 1953 |
During the presidential state
visit to
However, the woman who revolutionized a stodgy fashion industry and headlined the best-dressed list for years had not worn the wedding gown of her choice. Jacqueline (Jock-leen) Bouvier was a young bride in 1953 when it was typical for the bride’s mother to plan the wedding, dictate or greatly influence what her daughter would wear (and frequently whom she would marry), and basically run the show.
Of course, the headstrong Jackie
was not just any bride of the fifties. She was the future wife of one of the
wealthiest men in the country and one whose father had great political plans
for his oldest son’s future. So not only did the
The bride’s mother chose Ann
Lowe, an African American designer in
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| Jacqueline Kennedy wearing Oleg Cassini, appointed as her "exclusive couturier," Elysee Palace reception in Paris,1961 |
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| from GETTY IMAGES |
“On May 19, 2018, the royal nuptials of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made history and broke traditions, with the bride Meghan Markle’s wedding dress almost serving as an allegory,” Fawnia Soo Hoo wrote in her recent article, “Meghan Markle’s Wedding Dress Nods to Hollywood and American Royalty,” for Vanity Fair.
I love that this “allegorical” wedding, this extraordinary couple, and Meghan’s sensitive and intuitive creativity is being revisited in such a beautiful article. Fawnia chats with the gown’s designer, Clare Waight Keller, about its inspiration and her collaboration with the bride, noting other memorable wedding gowns....
“There was
that sense of playfulness and modernity and doing things in a different way,”
Waight Keller says. “And I really feel that—for the dress, particularly—that
sense of it could be something that really represented her, her spirit, her
modernity, and the freshness....”
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| from GETTY IMAGES |
Also revisit the article I wrote a few days after that memorable wedding in 2018 and posted here: “A Day of Gracious Gestures and Love Power”....
The radiant bride, in designer-sculpted shimmering white silk....
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| from GETTY IMAGES |
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| Royal Wedding, 31 July 1981, Lady Diana Spencer and Charles, Prince of Wales |
In my book, The
End of the Fairy-Tale Bride: For Better or Worse, How Princess Diana Rescued
the Great White Wedding, I looked at the social and historical influences
of the wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and Charles, Prince of Wales, in 1981. The
event was a cultural phenomenon. For the first time in history, nearly a
billion people came together at the same moment to witness the same marvel, televised
in ‘living color’—could such a spectacle not help but shake up our global
psyche? We gathered around our clunky television sets as if anticipating some
long-ago promise fulfilled.
With its reassuring sense of order and thrilling dose of pageantry—courtly rituals and symbolic pomp, ceremonial uniforms and polished splendor—this royal wedding was like a soothing balm for a society reeling from the rebellious upheavals of the 1960s and ‘70s. The wedding came at the beginning of a decade that saw Reaganomics, Thatcherism, pseudo-Christian politics, and a “greed is good” mentality attempt to put a lid on those earlier outspoken youthful voices, female voices, Black voices railing against a tone-deaf, out-of-touch, vengeful society. These latest patriarchal forces may have quieted those voices of dissent, but the revolutionary spirit remained, laying groundwork for the next uprising of heart energy.
Weddings, especially royal ones, can indeed be profound bringers of change. Although Charles’ and Diana’s wedding played its part in gilding the last two decades of the twentieth century with a superficial gloss, it had a more enduring role, something of the heart—evident even before the glittering wedding dust had settled. The regal ceremony stirred the wonder of some deeply feminine ethos around the world with its fairy-tale longings and a beautiful, lit-from-within bride…a heart-centered young woman (a future revolutionary) becoming a real princess of a legendary kingdom at a time when a new wave of feminism was rising—which seemed to punctuate its own irony with a mythological purpose. (Was an ancient archetype for a new age rising as well?)
[Continue reading this book-in-progress excerpt on MEDIUM...posted with a rare photo from my former shop.]
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| Diana, Princess of Wales, commemorative statue in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace in London |
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| “Ruby Ross Wood exemplies the growth of the American business woman—a self-made success before she could vote and a pioneer in establishing interior design as a career in what is now a multi-million dollar business annually.” |
“The Road to Good Taste: The Design Life of Ruby Ross Wood” is a new exhibition at the Atlanta History Center. It presents the life and work of one of America's most influential interior designers. From her early days as a journalist to opening her own firm, Ruby Ross Wood's work was always characterized by eclectic combinations of furniture, bold color choices, and impeccable taste."
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| Ruby Ross Wood, c1939 |
In honor of the coronation of King Charles III, looking back at his mother’s ceremonial gown: “The Story Behind Queen Elizabeth II's Dazzling—and Highly Symbolic—Coronation Gown”…an article by Emily Chan for Vogue. [reprinted below]
Soon afterwards, Hartnell submitted eight designs to fulfill the brief, the first of which was based on Queen Victoria’s coronation gown—a white satin dress with gold embroidery. Other sketches featured the Tudor rose and oak leaves, alongside one design based around the Madonna. Elizabeth opted for the eighth design, which incorporated the national emblems of the United Kingdom: the rose (England), thistle (Scotland), shamrock (Northern Ireland), and daffodil (Wales)—although the latter was changed to the leek, the official national emblem of Wales.
The finished coronation gown featured a sweetheart neckline and a delicate lattice design, with the emblems—decorated with seed pearls, sequins, and crystals—separated by heavily embellished scalloped borders comprising gold bugle beads, diamantés, and pearls. Hartnell also included a surprise for Her Majesty: a four-leafed shamrock on the left side of the skirt as a symbol of good luck.
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A long-time repeat wearer, the Queen actually went on to wear the Coronation gown a further six times, including at the opening of parliament in New Zealand and Australia in 1954. It’s an attitude towards fashion that the late monarch has certainly passed down to her son, King Charles III, as he is crowned at Westminster Abbey on Saturday.
All brides want to have a lovely ‘glow’ on their wedding day, but the gown of this particular bride in question is from the 17th century and was lost at sea for 350 years. More from the museum:
“At first sight, this appears to a brown-coloured gown [image above] but this would not have been the original colour. The dress was most probably made of lightly coloured silk (possibly white or cream) and the whole surface was covered with silver decorations. These consisted of small silver discs woven into the silk in the shape of love knots.”
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| Painting of Anne of Denmark by John de Critz the Elder that shows the silhouette of 17th century gowns... the shape of the shipwrecked treasure! |
To learn more of the story, this from Ashley Strickland of CNN:
In
1660, a ship carrying a treasure trove of luxury goods sank off the coast of Texel,
the largest island in the North Sea.
Nearly four centuries later, little remained of the wooden unidentified Dutch merchant ship. But as the silt and sand covering the wreck washed away, broken chests began to appear in 2010. Four years later, divers retrieved the chests and brought them to the surface.
Inside
were remarkable objects, the likes of which had never been seen before,
according to researchers at the Museum Kaap Skil in the Netherlands, where the
exclusive collection of items are on display.
The chests were full of clothing, textiles, silverware, leather book bindings and other goods that likely belonged to people from the highest social classes centuries ago.
Some
of the most stunning items include two virtually intact lavish gowns — a silk
dress and another one interwoven with pieces of silver that was likely a
wedding dress. Few textiles or clothing from the 17th century remain preserved
today, and it's even more rare to find them in shipwrecks because fabric decays
so quickly.
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| Wedding scene from Outlander |
Recently, Vanity Fair magazine returned to the iconic gown of Grace Kelly in Fawnia Soo Hoo's article, "Why Grace Kelly's Wedding Dress Embodies a Made-for-Hollywood Fairy Tale."
With sublimely intricate details, like seed pearls accenting needle lace motifs and a pleated silk faille cummerbund atop the skirting, Grace Kelly’s wedding-dress style continues to be interpreted—even by royals and celebrities—over six decades later. “The reason Princess Grace’s wedding gown still resonates today with so many brides has at least as much to do with who wore it, as the dress itself. The design is lovely and timeless, but the way the dress sits at an intersection of Hollywood and royalty makes it particularly evocative and very much an aspirational fantasy piece for many brides,” says Lorenzo Marquez, author, podcaster, and cofounder of fashion and culture website, Tom + Lorenzo.
One of the reasons I've always enjoyed studying, reading about, and speaking on the topic of costume history is because "what we wear" tells a story about "who we are"—bringing an intimacy to the human story with all of its creative spirit! As King Louis XIV of France said: "Fashion is the mirror of history."
Click here to be taken to Kimberly's entertaining talk, slide show, and Q & A. Enjoy!
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