Salivate over a Vera Wang wedding dress, if you must, but that won’t snatch your breath away like the one that took 30 women 6 weeks to work on. It may have cost only £52 to make, but that was the equivalent of a year’s wages in the 1930s, and a fitting royal outfit for Duchess of Argyll, Margaret Whigham, in her wedding to Charles Sweeny in 1933. And while this show-stopping dress may have been on everyone’s lips then, Wingham’s ensuing messy divorce involving multiple extramarital affairs later overshadowed the glitzy affair.

The best thing is that you won’t need a plane ticket to London to see this dress up close. This star attraction of The Wedding Dress: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion exhibition is at the National Museum of Singapore, on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum of London.

Singapore is only the third stop this exhibition has made after last year’s showing at the Bendigo Art Gallery in Victoria, Australia and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. After Singapore, the exhibition will go to the Western Australian Museum in Perth.

Norman Hartnell’s design, described earlier, will be placed in the middle of the gallery. It’ll be hard to miss it – the embroidered satin dress is flowy and textured with glass beads and layers of tulle, with a train measuring 2.7 m long.

Besides this beauty, there will be another 35 wedding gowns on display from renowned designers including John Galliano, Vera Wang and Vivienne Westwood. It’s divided into 9 sections that take you through a short lesson in the evolution of the wedding dress starting from its humble beginnings in the 1800s, although bridegroom outfits and 43 accessories are also on display.

Time travel to the Victorian era or marvel at high society British wedding garb before arriving at that defining turn: the iconic “New Look”, conceived by Christian Dior’s debut collection of 1947. This features full, long skirts and a cinched-in waist, and remains a popular and timeless look for wedding dresses, even today.

In fact, wedding dresses started off as conservative, functional pieces. High necklines and detachable trains and cape overlays were incorporated so these dresses could easily be worn again, and wreaths were constructed from paper—usually orange blossom, to symbolise fertility.

As fashion stepped into the noughties, wedding dresses became increasingly unconventional and began to reflect current fashions. Like the sexual purity that it symbolises, white became less certain a choice of colour for gowns on the special day. Interest in celebrity weddings, too, soared in the 90s—a craze fuelled by magazines like OK! Bridal—and superstar fashions were mimicked closely. One thing that’s constant, is the use of silk.

The Lacroix Bride of 1933 came courtesy of Parisian designer Christian Lacroix. The dress is every bit synonymous with the designer’s other works: elaborate, with great attention to detailing. Gold leaf, foil, beads, gems and chenille embroidery form a small part of this black-and-gold ensemble.

In fact, Lacroix was described by Grace Mirabella, former editor-in-chief of Vogue (America), as a designer for “women who dream of a grand spectacle”. Christina Aguilera, singer and judge on reality singing competition The Voice, wore a Lacroix gown in 2005 when she wed Jordan Bratman.

Also on loan to the museum is a John Galliano wedding dress, which fashion designer and former No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani wore in her marriage to Gavin Rossdale of Blink 182 in 2002.

The gown is a layered, asymmetrical silk-and-tulle combination that melds sweet romanticism with an edge: the upper half of the dress represents a punk-style corset, and then graduates towards a surprisingly bold spray-painted shade of pink that extends to the ends of the train.

Stefani paired it with a silk net veil with lace appliqué and Dior shoes, in a pairing anything but conventional.

Fans of Dita Von Teese will also be excited to examine her dress, a Vivienne Westwood creation which the singer-burlesque artist donned in her 2005 nuptials with rocker Marilyn Manson.

 

The off-the-shoulder violet gown is made of shot tafetta and makes literally a sweeping statement with its shimmering, reflective fabric. Von Teese paired the gown with a hat with dyed mink mini pom-poms.

And what’s a wedding dress exhibition without a famed Vera Wang gown?

The American designer is so sought after for adding touches of contemporary fashion to traditional wedding gowns, and the understated, strapless dress featured here comprises tissue organza with satin-faced organza, complemented by cream silk flowers. In what may likely have been a nod to the premium on comfort and freedom that fashion allowed during that period, bride Katie Turner toned down the formality of the occasion by pairing the piece with flip-flops.

 

All photos courtesy of ©Victoria and Albert Museum / V&A Images.

UrbanWire is giving out 5 pairs of tickets (worth $22/pair) to The Wedding Exhibition! More details here. Contest closes Oct 1, so hurry!

 

Event Details

The Wedding Dress: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria & Albert Museum, London -now ’til 31 October 2012

National Museum of Singapore
93 Stamford Road

Exhibition Gallery 1 and The Canyon (basement level)
Opening Hours: 10am to 6pm daily
Tickets at $11 (including handling fees) at the museum’s ticketing booth

To book tickets and for further information, click here.