...THE Wedding Dress - a dress with soul.

 

Recently, my Mother and I have been discussing the fate of Her My OUR 1950's wedding dress (NOT Plural!)...

~FLASHBACK~

• Christmas Eve 2000 - I got engaged!
• October 27, 2001 - The Wedding.

During that time there was a whirlwind of planning, decisions, and World Wide turmoil (911!).  One of the first things a girl is 'supposed' to do is find her 'perfect dress'?!  I had never been the young girl that had Dreamed & Planned of HER DAY, I had just been concerned with finding MR RIGHT.  Okay, that was done, now onto The.Planning.  At 33yrs old, & 6'-0" tall, the thought of searching for a dress, with an entourage of onlookers, in Bright lights, with Large 3-way mirrors just turned my stomach!!

Then, The.Perfect.Answer!  I remembered that box in the attic - The dress that my Mom had worn down the aisle on 3-14-53.  I had tried it on when I was in my teens, when Mom was cleaning out 'junk'.  She was going to toss it, but I had told her to hang on to it - you never know.  It had fit perfect at that time - just a little long!  Well, as luck would have it, the dress had survived, and I found a GREAT seamstress - a Serious WIN-WIN (Mom was beyond Thrilled that I would want to wear her old dress!). 

10-27-01

 I remember walking down the aisle with my Dad, and joking 'Bet you never thought you'd be walking this dress down the aisle TWICE - in different directions!' (almost 50yrs later!!)

and now it is 2021!

~ Dad passed away a couple of years ago, but Mom & Dad had a wonderful 66yr. marriage...

~ J & I are going strong, and will be celebrating our 20yr anniversary this Fall...

~ Mom is now 87yrs old, and continually curious as to what will happen to her 'stuff' when she's gone, and trying to get things settled (?)!.

~We have both decided to set The Dress free, and let it bring Good Luck to someone else (we don't foresee future generations having any desire for this MidCentury dress - they will have their Mother's to wear!!).  The dress is headed to Ebay & ETSY - For Sale

I pulled the BOX from storage, and I enlisted the help of Sesame Shimmer (mannequin) for a photo shoot (I am certainly not fitting back into that dress again in the foreseeable future!!)  I think she did quite well.

During this cleanout, much 'reminiscing' has taken place with my Mother (priceless!).  She asked what had ever become of her 'GOING AWAY SUIT'?

For those not familiar with the term / tradition:

 "The tradition of the going away outfits where before the bride and groom leave they change out of their dress and tux and leave in more comfortable clothes, especially if they are heading straight for the airport that night or the next morning following the Wedding."

"Whereas most wedding dresses are commonly only worn once by (especially by modern brides), in all likelihood, your going away dress or suit is something that will then be folded into rotation in your usual everyday wardrobe. As such, feel free to spend a little more on it then you might if you were only going to sport it one time."

I let Mom know that it still hung in My closet.  NO,  I didn't wear it for it's original purpose, but in the late 80's -90's it was 'folded into rotation' of MY work wardrobe.  Mom's GoingAwaySuit was the Original 'Capsule Wardrobe', consisting of 4 interchangeable pieces - Houndstooth Jacket, 1 solid red skirt, 1 houndstooth skirt and a reversible vest (you guessed it - houndstooth/solid red)!  This was my Power Suit!  I wore it during my co-op position @ Kodak, and I even wore it to my 'Real-Just Graduated College' job interview at Beardsley's (which I got!).  In this suit I felt invincible.

•   I can no longer fit into it.
• I no longer have an Office job that requires this attire
• Since the Wedding Dress is going, WE decided the time was right for The suit to go as well.

~AND~

In the old Wedding Dress Box, I had found a little bag tucked off in the corner - a Classy, light pink PEIGNOR SET.

peignoir

[ˌpānˈwär]

NOUN

1. a woman's light dressing gown or negligee.

   synonyms:

   housecoat · bathrobe · dressing gown · robe · negligee · kimono · robe de chambre

Since it too had a correlation to 3-14-53 & deserves a New Life, we are giving it the same treatment, and will have it it's own listing, for sale on-line!

HOPEFULLY, these vintage pieces will continue on for many more years.

enJOY!

& 

be well