Undocumented wedding dress

While objects are relatively static the knowledge around them is volatile and can be lost. Sometimes, as in the case of this dress, it is the history of a collection that is the first step to bringing meaning back to a museum object. The history of collecting also limits what a curator can show in an exhibition.

The wearer of this outfit is unrecorded. The dress and train are separates made from silk satin. The dress has a square cut neckline and is overlaid with a tunic of lace, creating a high round collar.

It fastens at the back with hooks and eyes, and is decorated with small pearl beads and satin buttons. A wax sprig of orange blossom is attached to the front.

The straight cut skirt is plain at the front but has detailing at the back, which is revealed when the train is detached. The 1.4 metre long train is decorated in one corner with a bow and a sprig of wax orange blossom, and on the other with an embroidered sprig of foliage.

A matching handkerchief accompanies the outfit, and a loose piece of wax orange blossom may have decorated a head dress.

The cut of the dress with the lace tunic shows the influence of the French couturier Paul Poiret, who created dresses inspired by the Ballets Russes dance company that toured Paris and London in 1911. The only clue to possible ownership of this dress is an associated cardboard box with the name ‘Warburton’ written onto it in blue ink.

Collecting Costume

Predominantly, the dresses from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in this exhibition were worn by women from somewhere within the hierarchies of the middle class.

This was not a deliberate decision, but one led by what is in the Museum collection. This is also the reason that there are gaps in representing various decades.

There is a bias towards middle class clothing in the collection for three main reasons:

1. Survival
There is a natural bias against the poor because their clothing was of inferior quality and what little clothing they did own would have been worn until it was destroyed or recycled.

The middle class on the other hand would have owned more clothing of better quality, worn less often, which is a circumstance that promotes survival.

They were also more likely to be able to afford a wedding dress that would be worn for one day and not reused but kept for sentimental reasons. For this reason, more middle and upper class clothing from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have survived to be donated to the Museum collection.

2. Collecting practice.
The creation of this costume collection seems to have originated in 1963 with the Textiles register, in which accessions throughout the 1960s up to 1974 are recorded.

Apart from the donation of a couple of collections, the register has grown through small donations by individuals from Bolton. The collection thus represents what Boltonians and curators thought was appropriate.

3. The concept of costume as a decorative art
In the 1960s and early 1970s, what was thought appropriate costume to collect was dictated by the concept of costume as a decorative art. In general, a good representation of well-made quality clothes was the aim.

However, no named designers were ever collected, nor costume worn by anyone famous. Furthermore, the way the costume was recorded placed description over context, meaning that the original wearer was often forgotten.

Hence one of the aims of this exhibition has been to focus on the women at least as much as the dress they wore, and to use these dresses as a way of exploring the history of local life.