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This...

This reminded me of someone:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/wedding-dress-1775-2014/

Wedding dresses have always fascinated me. Ever since I can remember, my mother made wedding dresses for women - usually friends or daughters of friends, and usually for not as much as she could have made. I remember streams of very beautiful and very excited ladies coming to our home for fittings. I also remember my mother speaking about how fussy these ladies were...

It occurs to me that a wedding is one of the few lasting formal occasions we have in our culture. A wedding dress, be it elaborate or simple, is a symbol of a person's purity, of the dignity of the occasion, and of the respect and importance one ascribes to the act of marrying another. Everyone has a dream about their wedding day, and everyone wants to look and feel important on this most important of days.

So when a person crafts a dress for a bride, this person is becoming a part of the history of, well, history. People who marry set out into the world, forever changed and linked to another. This day, this moment, reflects the summa summarum of life's goals and desires. It is the great eternal hinge, the point where two people decide to no longer live as one, but to spend the rest of forever with another.

It is altogether good and proper, then, that the bride is dressed as she will never be dressed again, in finery reserved for such momentous occasions.

I have seen many bridal gowns in various stages of creation, and I know a little bit about the craft and time spent in making these beautiful frocks. Much blood, sweat, and often tears go into each one, so the bride may look her best on her day. And I think it's marvelous. People don't often consider the person behind the machine who makes these things possible, much like the forgotten builders of the scenery for a theatrical production - you see their work, but the builders themselves are hardly ever seen. It is truly altruistic work, and all the more lovely because of it.

Comments

lillysmum said…
OH MY. I need to see this exhibit. Except, I can't. But wow. Lovely. And I like your thoughts about wedding gowns.
December 3, 2014 at 9:44 PM
lillysmum said…
Except I can. I'm going to London in January for a week. I'll be seeing this exhibit. :)
December 7, 2014 at 8:49 PM
Bill Cobabe said…
That's awesome. Congratulations.
December 7, 2014 at 9:53 PM
lillysmum said…
Thank you, and yes it is. All by myself, but I deserve this trip! ;)
December 7, 2014 at 10:16 PM
Bill Cobabe said…
Indeed. I'm sure it will be a marvelous trip.
December 8, 2014 at 5:04 AM
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