American Wedding Gown – Summer 1902

A dark-haired woman looks directly at the viewer in a three-quarter pose wearing an elaborate white wedding dress. The bodice has a deep round neck with an inset of lace, with a high collar and a key-hole neckline, showing her five strand pearl necklace. A deep lace turn over collar with a small ruffle edge falls from the bodice with openings at the center front and center back. The main bodice consists of small narrow horizontal pleats angling down at the front.

At the center front is a cascade of ruffles to the waist with a flower at the edge of the neckline. The three-quarter sleeves are covered with five horizontal rows of either ruching or ruffles, and two wide ruffles at the elbow. She wears long white gloves. The upper layer of the skirt consists of horizontal pleats, narrow at the waist and getting wider at the hem, coming to a point at the center front. This layer reaches to ankle length in front and angles up at the back to above knee length.

The under layer consists of four wide soft ruffles, each ruffle with a narrow ruffle edging it, matching the sleeves. At the back, falling from just under the collar, is a long narrow ruffled train, small over the bodice and widening at the skirt into a train that sweeps the floor. The ruffles edge the sides and continue around the hem.

She wears a veil that falls from a floral headpiece of green and white with a pouf of veiling. She carries a large cascading bouquet of pink flowers and green leaves. A small black and white sketch of the back view of the gown is shown at the right side of the plate, and two concentric circles form the background.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges