DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22262#0088
Anna Straszewska
thicker and stiffer fabrics were in, satin was still willingly chosen for dresses but
without a thin outer layer or tunic. However, throughout that period aristocratic
bridal gowns were made of silk embroidered in gold and silver as well as brocaded
or lamed for more splendour and dazzling effect.
Wedding dresses of light cotton fabrics such as gauze and muślin were vogue until
the 1850s. In Poland, the twilight of their popularity coincided with the national
mourning time in the 1860s. The second haif of the nineteenth century was the age
of satin produced in abundance of all sorts and ąualities.
The two dresses from the Polish museums are all white, and the white cotton thread
embroidery is their only decoration.
The white colour - just like the train and type of fabric - was a characteristic, though
not distinctive, feature of the wedding style of that time. In the Directorate and Con-
sulate periods, white dresses were common as white was considered the dress colour
of ancient Greek and Roman women. Decoration was limited to white embroideries
of antique-like motifs running along the hem. Even though darker, vivid colours were
also popular in the First Empire period, white remained the most fashionable.
Traditionally, white stood for innocence, chastity and virginity. As such, it was con-
sciously, but not commonly, selected - from the late Middle Ages onwards - for
bridal dress, sometimes also for the groom's outfit26. By the end of the eighteenth
century white wedding gowns were worn by women from royal houses. Usually they
were made of gold- and silver-woven fabrics. A description of the wedding dress of
princess Elisabeth, daughter of King James I of England, shows that the selection
of the white colour was not accidental (1613): 'Her vestments where white, the em-
blem of Innocence .. .'27.
In Poland, an off-white wedding dress (perhaps yellowed with age) of ribbed silk,
embroidered in silver and gold, was worn by the Austrian princess Constance who
married King Sigismund III, on December 6, 160528.
The trend for white wedding dress did not spread until the turn of the eighteenth
century, when prices of clothes dropped thanks to using machine-made cotton fab-
rics. Simpler cuts that appeared in the 1790s imitating the antiąue mode allowed
26 Nixdorff, H., Muller, H., Weiae Westen - Rote Roben. Von den Farbordnungen des
Mittelalters zum indwiduellen Farbgeschmack. Berlin 1983, p. 93.
27 A Complete History of England. 1706, Vol. III, Kennet, W. (ed.), p. 690, after: Cunnington
Ph., Lucas C, Costume for Births, Marriages and Death, A&C Black 1972, p. 93.
28 The Queen's wedding dress was made over to liturgical vestment and presented to
the Jasna Góra monastery, where it has survived up to this day; inv. no. CMC TK-18-
21.
86
thicker and stiffer fabrics were in, satin was still willingly chosen for dresses but
without a thin outer layer or tunic. However, throughout that period aristocratic
bridal gowns were made of silk embroidered in gold and silver as well as brocaded
or lamed for more splendour and dazzling effect.
Wedding dresses of light cotton fabrics such as gauze and muślin were vogue until
the 1850s. In Poland, the twilight of their popularity coincided with the national
mourning time in the 1860s. The second haif of the nineteenth century was the age
of satin produced in abundance of all sorts and ąualities.
The two dresses from the Polish museums are all white, and the white cotton thread
embroidery is their only decoration.
The white colour - just like the train and type of fabric - was a characteristic, though
not distinctive, feature of the wedding style of that time. In the Directorate and Con-
sulate periods, white dresses were common as white was considered the dress colour
of ancient Greek and Roman women. Decoration was limited to white embroideries
of antique-like motifs running along the hem. Even though darker, vivid colours were
also popular in the First Empire period, white remained the most fashionable.
Traditionally, white stood for innocence, chastity and virginity. As such, it was con-
sciously, but not commonly, selected - from the late Middle Ages onwards - for
bridal dress, sometimes also for the groom's outfit26. By the end of the eighteenth
century white wedding gowns were worn by women from royal houses. Usually they
were made of gold- and silver-woven fabrics. A description of the wedding dress of
princess Elisabeth, daughter of King James I of England, shows that the selection
of the white colour was not accidental (1613): 'Her vestments where white, the em-
blem of Innocence .. .'27.
In Poland, an off-white wedding dress (perhaps yellowed with age) of ribbed silk,
embroidered in silver and gold, was worn by the Austrian princess Constance who
married King Sigismund III, on December 6, 160528.
The trend for white wedding dress did not spread until the turn of the eighteenth
century, when prices of clothes dropped thanks to using machine-made cotton fab-
rics. Simpler cuts that appeared in the 1790s imitating the antiąue mode allowed
26 Nixdorff, H., Muller, H., Weiae Westen - Rote Roben. Von den Farbordnungen des
Mittelalters zum indwiduellen Farbgeschmack. Berlin 1983, p. 93.
27 A Complete History of England. 1706, Vol. III, Kennet, W. (ed.), p. 690, after: Cunnington
Ph., Lucas C, Costume for Births, Marriages and Death, A&C Black 1972, p. 93.
28 The Queen's wedding dress was made over to liturgical vestment and presented to
the Jasna Góra monastery, where it has survived up to this day; inv. no. CMC TK-18-
21.
86