I was home this past weekend and had some fun with my parents reminiscing about the past. This all came about because one of my aunts (well my dad's cousin's wife) is organising a Wedding Dress through the Ages show to raise money for their local church and my mum happened to mention that she had her mother's wedding dress in the attic.
Next thing I know I have promised to model it for the show (if I fit in it of course) and so there I was on Saturday afternoon in a 1938 wedding dress.
My grandparents on their wedding day, 17th March 1938.
My grandmother bought the dress in a famous department store on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow, called Pettigrew and Stephens, the store opened in 1888 and by 1914 it was the largest department store in Scotland. The company was bought by House of Fraser in 1955.
Image: Archgeek
The building was designed by Honeyman & Keppie, with it's dome designed by one of their associate architects, who was to become one of Scotland's most famous architects, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It really does look like a stunning building but like so much of our history the building was demolished in 1969.
Here's the, original box my grandma's wedding dress is in. I love that the telegram address is "Everything Glasgow".
It's a slinky number made of stretchy fabric with beautiful metallic patterning, a belt that goes around just below the bust and a long long train made of net, with silver embroidery all around the edges and attached to a silver headband.
The dress now has short sleeves, we think my grandmother had it adapted after her wedding so she could wear it again.
If I get a decent picture of me wearing the dress then I will try to post it here - on what would have been my grandparents 75th wedding anniversary.
8 comments:
I love this kind of history!!! The dress looks beautiful and I can see a little of the family resemblance. I also learned something-- I didn't realize that Mackintosh was from Scotland (or maybe it just didn't click) but that is definitely a Scottish name! History means so much more when there are personal connections. I do hope you'll post a photo of you in it! You'll look beautiful!
I love that the original box still exists! And I look forward to seeing a picture of the dress on you :)
I have my wedding dress put away for now, but I'm hoping to be able to remodel it to a longer cocktail dress to use on fancy occations :)
Wow! I love histories from the past, thank you for this:) You have to show us the dress on you!
Oh how fun! I love that you know so much about your Grandmother's wedding dress and that you still have it (I would LOVE to have my Grandmother's wedding dress -- or even a picture of her in it!) So sad that they tore that gorgeous building down. And yes, PLEASE do show us a picture of you in the wedding dress!
I can safely say that I would not fit into my grandmother's evening dress. She always used to say wistfully, "I had a 20-inch waist when I got married".
I probably had a 20-inch waist when I went to secondary school. And even that might be optimistic.
Lovely story. My mum also have lot of old photos I usually stare for long time.
My grandmother was married in black, it was war time...now she is 94 in a few days....
How great that the dress still exists. My mum's 60s mini wedding dress doesn't even still exist. That's not quite true - the fairy for our family Xmas tree wears a dress made from a small part of it! I love looking at old family photos - I find it fascinating how faces have changed over the decades.
Ohhh, how exciting. It's so much fun to descover and re-descover once family history.
I am sure you will fit that dress!
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