Wedding dresses before the twentieth century were typiaclly the woman's best dress. As far as the group of brown dresses, that does seem unusual, and may be a particular trend if they all date from the same 5-10 year period or they it may be a tradition of that particular culture. The Atlanta History Center does have a wedding dress of a very wealthy lady that is brown silk also, so it is not completely un seen. I would recommend looking in fashion magazines of the time to find out more about whether it was a national trend or a local one. There were several national publications at the time, including Petersons and Godey's. You may be able to find some in libraries or Larger museums with costume collections.

Elizabeth Walton
www.clotheslinejournal.com





-------Original Message-------
From: Candace Perry <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 08/05/03 12:20 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: brown wedding gowns

>
> I am curator of a small history museum that interprets the heritage of a
small PA German Protestant group, and I have noticed an interesting (at
least to me!) phenomenon regarding the wedding gowns of the group members
in
the late 19th century.  We have at least 4 rather similar BROWN dresses
from
the 1880s-90s.  They are typical in style for that time period, they are
silk with various trims.  I am aware that the white wedding is a 20th
century thing, more or less, but I've never run into so many similar
dresses
from different brides from this time period. Makes for a pretty dull
wedding
exhibit!!!
I am trying to determine if this was another peculiarity of this group, or
actually might have been fashionable for brides to wear brown in that time
period.  Can't say I've run into it in other collections.  A bit of
background -- the group (the Schwenkfelders) were conservative and modest
but not "plain"  and they were members of rural communities, for the most
part.
Looking forward to any input,
Candace Perry
Schwenfelder Library & Heritage Center

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