A Once Shimmering Wedding Gown Lost at Sea

“If it was worn as a wedding dress,” explained the Museum of Kaap Skil in the Netherlands about an extraordinary vintage gown on display, “the bride would have been the dazzling centrepiece of the marriage ceremony.”

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.”

“With the woven silver discs and embroidered patterns of silver thread it must have been, literally and figuratively, a dazzling dress!”

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!

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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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Click here for a seven-minute video of museum experts speaking about the two gowns found in the shipwreck.

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Wedding scene from Outlander

For more on shimmering wedding dresses, visit my webpage from 2016 featuring the 18th-century era gown created by Outlander costume designer Terry Dresbach for Claire Randall to wear for her wedding with Jamie Fraser. (Hint: bits of iridescent mica were woven into the fabric to catch the candlelight!)