Biedrońska-Słotowa, Beata : Crossroads of costume and textiles in Poland: papers from the International Conference of the ICOM Costume Committee at the National Museum in Cracow, September 28 - October 4, 2003 (Krakau, 2005)

Anna Straszewska

Fig. 1 Fig. 2

Batiste wedding gown from the collection Muślin wedding gown from the collection of the

of the National Museum in Cracow, ca. National Museum in Warsaw, ca. 1805; photo by

1805 (after M. Gutkowska-Rychlewska, Piotr Ligier
M. Taszycka, Ubiory i akceso-ria mody
wieku XIX. Kraków 1967, Fig. 1)

1792)6. In 1805 Zofia reached the age of thirteen, exactly the age of the Kraków
bride and the legał age to get married in those days. This explains the almost iden-
tical, petite size of both dresses.

The purpose of these dresses has been passed down by word of mouth from genera-
tion to generation. No attempts have been made to study them in detail assuming
they were no different than other contemporary women's garments. My aim is to
use them to demonstrate that the early nineteenth-century wedding dress had dis-
tinctive features indicative of its function.

The skirts of both dresses are decorated with white embroidery of satin stitch and
French knots in relatively thick cotton thread that stands out distinctly against the

6 Op. cit., pp. 96, 98, 103.

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