I was delighted to be invited to a preview of the V&A's vintage wedding dresses exhibition at the weekend. It's a great day out with eighty spectacular dresses and some lovely stories about the brides.
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| Kate Moss in fabulous vintage-inspired dress, and designer John Galliano |
The show starts with some amazing examples of 18th and 19th Century wedding dresses, including many Victorian dresses - all works of tremendous skill and opulence.
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| 1885 wedding dress by Gladman & Womack |
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| Satin court dress, 1775-80 |
I enjoyed seeing these older dresses from the V&A's own collection. But I did feel there were a few too many, compared to the 20th Century dresses. While these earlier dresses are interesting, they're not so relevant for a modern bride considering a vintage dress - being neither wearable or flattering!
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| Dress of Cara Leland Huttleston Rogers, 1890. However did she breathe! |
The show then romps through the 20th Century at a very fast pace. It begins with 1920s dresses and has a few examples which are much softer and prettier. I particularly liked one lovely example, which reminded me of a very similar Edwardian lace blouse I sold last year.
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Norman Hartnell wedding dress for Margaret Wigham, 1933
Its 3.6m train famously stopped traffic on the day! |
I was disappointed to see only two 1930s satin dresses, and no 1930s lace gowns which are famously wonderful. And I could only see a few 1940s and 1950s wedding dresses. Since this is considered a golden period for wedding dress design, I felt the show didn't really do justice to it. Most of the gowns in the show are British and I imagine few girls could afford a wonderful dress at that time, but there must have been some society weddings with beautiful dresses?
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Charles James dress for Barbara Beaton, 1934
Barbara was the sister of Cecil Beaton |
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| Dress and hat by Geoffrey Beene, 1970s |
Upstairs, the show features late-20th Century dresses, including some very well-known contemporary dresses, Some fabulous, some less so! |
| Gwen Stefani's dress by John Galliano, 2002 |
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| Gwen Stefani's wedding to Gavin Rossdale, 2002 |
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Dress by Gareth Pugh for Katie Shillingford, 2011
Veil by Stephen Jones |
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| Bruce Oldfield wedding dress for model Lisa Butcher, 1992 |
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| Lisa Butcher marries chef Marco Pierre White, 1992 |
But I was most pleased to see Kate Moss’s vintage-inspired wedding dress close up as it is far more lovely than the newspapers photos could show. It's worth going just to see how the gold sequins have been applied to the train!
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| Dress by John Galliano for Kate Moss' wedding to Jamie Hince, 2011 |
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| Hand-embroidered sequins and pearls for Kate Moss's fabulous dress |
Each dress in the show has its own story, illustrated with newspaper articles etc. I can see that's very important from the V&A's historical point of view, so I'm sure it would influence the curator's choices. But I would have liked to see some dresses chosen purely for their design qualities - their sheer beauty and ability to flatter - rather than for their provenance.
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'Bird of Paradise' wedding dress by Vivienne Westwood for Dita Von Teese
Grosgrain, velvet and mink tricorn hat by Stephen Jones, 2005 |
After the wedding dresses, I dropped in to see the Italian Fashion exhibition - which I loved. One thing I noticed was the great number of talented women designers from the 1940s and 1950s producing wonderfully glamorous dresses. But they seemed to disappear towards the latter end of the century - when the boys took over again after the War!
Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides
Photographs c. Victoria & Albert Museum
On my vintage wedding blog today, I'd like to share a little of what I learned and show you some beautiful examples.
In the 1800s, lace-making machines were invented in England. Suddenly lace was available on a wider scale, and Nottingham became the lace-making centre of the world. My Butterfly and Angel dresses, below, use lace made specially for me by one of the oldest family firms in Nottingham. This original vintage style from the 1930s used to be called 'English Net'.
Leavers lace is still the kind most used by couture houses, notably Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior, Etro, Yves St Laurent, Paul Smith and even Vivienne Westwood. 
In turn, the machines were sold to Far East producers and lace production in France was scaled back. Now the Far East creates wonderful lace too. Amazingly, all modern Leavers lace is still produced on the same machinery, invented 200 years ago!
For my Heavenly Collection of vintage inspired wedding dresses, I use lace from all these different sources - choosing the best from ateliers in Nottingham, France and Japan.
