Dresses that go gown in history

There’s a long tradition to wedding dress design, with many in museum collections. We look at some belonging to the V&A...

As Scotland’s first design museum V&A Dundee prepares for its grand opening tomorrow, we take a peek at some of the wedding dress designs that feature in the collection held by the V&A: the world’s leading museum of art and design.

V&A Dundee will be the only

V&A museum in the world outside the renowned building in London’s South Kensington. It was designed by internationally-acclaimed architect Kengo Kuma and stands at the centre of a £1 billion transformation of the Dundee waterfront.

V&A Dundee has been established in close partnership with the V&A in London, drawing on its collections, curatorial expertise and exhibitions. As well as bringing V&A exhibitions to Scotland, it will develop its own exhibitions.

The V&A in London holds a stunning collection of wedding attire, spanning five centuries and featuring key designers. Extravagant, demure, edgy, elegant, pure white, bold colour – these ensembles are as varied as the brides and grooms who wore them.

Between May 2014 and March 2015, the V&A staged an exhibition called Wedding Dresses 1775–2014, tracing the development of the fashionable white wedding dress and its treatment by key fashion designers such as Charles Frederick Worth, Norman Hartnell, Charles James, John Galliano, Christian Lacroix, Vivienne Westwood and Vera Wang over the past 200 years. The dresses on this page are also examples of those in the museum’s collection. Many are in storage and are not scheduled to be displayed at V&A Dundee.

1. Design for the wedding dress of Elizabeth Emanuel by renowned British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, London. Created in 1976 in pencil, colour wash and body colour. The V&A also holds the finished article in its collection.

2. Wedding dress of silk satin designed by Charles James, England, 1934. This was worn by Barbara “Baba” Beaton – the sister of photographer Cecil Beaton – when she married Alec Hambro in November 1934. The young designer created a very modern interpretation of the white wedding dress with a raised neckline and divided train.

3. Machine-made silk lace dress, lined with silk, part embroidered with diamantes, faux pearls and opalescent beads. Designed and made by Isobel, London and worn by Anne Molineux for her wedding in 1953. Isobel was one of London’s most successful fashion houses in the inter-war period.

Images courtesy of the V&A Museum, London. 1.

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