By Stacen Goldman, FHC Curator
Perhaps the most eye-catching part of our new exhibit, History in the Stitches: Framingham Fashion through the Centuries is the canopy that dominates the center of the space, underneath which stand three brides from three centuries. These dresses share one key detail that instantly makes their matrimonial purpose clear: they are all white.
This seems obvious, right? Tradition holds that wedding dresses are white, and looking at our exhibit you might think that this has always been the case. After all, white dresses are meant to represent purity and commitment to God, and anybody who’s learned about the history of early America would say our predecessors were nothing if not religious. But that assumption isn’t actually representative of the historical reality. There is a story that remains untold in our exhibit — the story of colored wedding dresses.Despite what you may think, color dominated bridal fashion for most of Western history. Moreover, white was not necessarily considered a marker of purity or spiritual commitment (more on what it did mean later). When considered closely, it seems almost unusual that white should be the dominant color for a bride. Women want to mark their weddings as special occasions, if they truly wanted to catch the eye, what better way to do it than with color and pattern?
The white wedding dress that is credited with starting the modern tradition was worn by Queen Victoria when she married Prince Albert in 1840. The rumor is that Victoria wore it to match a specific type of lace that she admired. No matter the reason, her color choice captured the public’s attention at a time that colored dresses were much more common for bridal wear. It should be little surprised to anyone who witnessed the most recent royal wedding that brides want to mimic royal style — replicas of Kate Middleton’s wedding dress flew off the shelves in the year following her marriage to Prince William.Before then, white wasn’t unheard of in wedding fashion, but it was hardly the most common color. Those who did wear white weren’t wearing it for the reasons you might think. In fact, it was downright impractical for most women to wear white on their wedding day.
Today’s brides would say that when choosing a wedding dress, practicality is not a part of the equation, but before the 20th century, the average women was not likely to put aside a dress for one single occasion. Many women made their own clothing in the home, and dressmaking was a time consuming process, especially before the popularization of the sewing machine in the 1850s.When a woman dedicated her time and energy to crafting a dress, she wouldn’t put her hard work to waste by wearing it for only one day! New garments would become long-term additions to her wardrobe. Besides, a woman didn’t always wear a new dress on her wedding day — many simply chose to get married in their Sunday best, which often meant wearing a colored (or even patterned) dress. Even if a woman did make a new dress for her wedding, it would likely be worn again after the big day.White was an unpopular color for brides before Queen Victoria because it was very difficult to maintain and re-wear. As anyone with a young child (or who is especially clumsy) can attest, white soils easily. Doing laundry 200 years ago was not the simple task it is today — it was hard physical labor and often yielded imperfect results. When a bride wore white on her wedding day, it signalled that that she was not doing the kind of labor that would soil a white dress and she could afford to wear something impractical. Simply put, a bride in white was a woman of wealth and leisure.
Believe it or not, the machine on the right is supposed to make laundry easy! Advertisement for an excelsior bench wringer, ca. 1870-1900. Boston Public Library
After Queen Victoria’s wedding, white became an increasingly popular color for bridal gowns, but it was still considered very expensive. Colored dresses remained in use throughout the rest of the 19th century. It wasn’t until the 20th century that white would become the only color for bridalwear. This was largely due to the rise of the American middle class. Not only did the middle class have money to spend on more frivolous purchases (like a one-time-use dress), but synthetic materials made it possible to mimic luxury fabrics while remaining affordable and easy to maintain. By the 1920s, the trend became ingrained, and American women said goodbye to the colored wedding dress.
Although none of the brides on display in our exhibit are wearing colored dresses, the Framingham History Center does have a number of colored wedding dresses in the textile collection. See the collage for our most colorful pieces.
History in the Stitches: Framingham Fashion through the Centuries is open to the public Wednesday-Saturday, 1-4 PM through September.