[Originally at One dress, five weddings: gown with a history goes on display by Esther Addley]
Elizabeth Wray never had very much as a young woman, having grown up in the east end of London between the wars, starting work at 14 to support her younger siblings when their mother died of septicaemia after an abortion.
But when she married in 1938, and for the rest of her long life, she was very proud of her wedding dress.
Like many of her background, Betty, as she was known, made her own gown for her wedding to the postal worker James Wray, using a relatively inexpensive artificial silk. She was a talented dressmaker, and her cousin Dorothy, who worked for the London couturier Norman Hartnell, already a favourite of the royal family, added some fine beadwork detailing to the collar and sleeves.
Betty Wray in the 1940s. Photograph: Museum of London
It was, in other words, “a rather upmarket dress for their class of people”, recalls her daughter Pamela Ackers. So special, in fact, that throughout the second world war and immediately afterwards, Wray would loan it to four other brides.
Until her death in 2000 at the age of 86, it remained one of her most cherished possessions.
This month, 80 years after it was made, the dress that was worn by five brides will be the centre of attention again, as part of a display at the Museum of London.
The wedding dress has been donated to the Museum of London.
Read the full article at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/09/wedding-dress-tells-story-five-lives-display-museum-of-london or read s’more wedding-related coolness at www.dowoakevents.com/services
I’m a sucker for both pet-related weddings and weddings that involve history in some way. So I read this article and immediately knew it had to be published. I actually would be very interested to see that dress first-hand. If anyone knows how I could achieve this new goal, lemme know.
Comentarios