Vintage wedding dresses on show
Margaret Baskett 1948
Planning your wedding – and choosing the dress – is about inspiration. Vintage is one of the hot looks at the moment.
If you want some genuine inspiration from weddings gone by and a close-up look at some of the dresses – some 70 years old but still beautiful – check out the ‘Bridal Fashion Through the Years’ catwalk show being held in Takapuna, on Auckland’s North Shore, this Friday evening, October 2. Some of the vintage dresses are even being modelled by the daughters and granddaughters of their original owners.
One such model is Jodi Czepanski, who will wear the dress her now 90-year-old grandmother, Philis Armstrong, from Takapuna, wore nearly 70 years ago, at her World War Two wedding.
The silky cross-over, V-decked dress with long sleeves was whizzed up in a mere three days for the short-notice army leave wedding to fiancé Bill. Luckily, Philis was a dressmaker’s model with the same measurements as a client.
The dress pictured was worn in a post-war wedding, when Margaret Baskett married Leslie Ross. Another silky, cross-over style dress with long sleeves, Margaret’s dress, which will on show on Friday, is made of French silvered brocaded damask, which must have been hard to obtain in those austere post-war days. Although you can’t see it in the picture, the dress features a bustled bow at the back and has a circular skirt, according to a newspaper report of the wedding.
And if you’re wondering what the unusual-for-now bouquet Margaret is carrying is composed of, the flowers are begonias mixed with stephanotis.
The bridal fashion show starts at 7.30pm, at the Positive Ageing Centre, beside Takapuna Library on The Strand, Takapuna. Entry costs $25 but includes nibbles and drinks.
There is also exhibition of vintage wedding gowns and photographs, as well as bridal memorabilia that will run from 10am to 3pm on the following Saturday and Sunday.
It could also be worth a look for vintage bridal inspiration.
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