I was looking at random pictures the other day, and I came across a page with the most interesting wedding photos I have ever seen. Instead of your customary bride looking at groom, groom looking at bride, or wedding party looking at bride and groom photos, these shots focused mainly on the bride alone. And the kicker was that in each picture, the wedding dress was being destroyed. There were a number of water shots, some with the groom and some without. There were others with paint or dirt splattered all over the dress. My personal favourite was the shot of a bride lying in the middle of a train track.
Maybe I am morbid, or maybe I am artsy, but I firmly believe this is a perfect end to a wedding dress. Women who say they will wear their dress again are nuts, unless you are planning some really cool Bride of Chucky Halloween costume. I have never been sentimental about clothing, and I don’t think it is necessary to spend thousands of dollars on a gown. I would rather take that money and put it towards a meaningful honeymoon. In my opinion, doing something creative with ones dress after its purpose has been fulfilled is a really fun, interesting, and original way to say goodbye to the garment a woman wore on the most important day of her life.
That photo's awesome - do you have a link to the website?
ReplyDeleteI've seen some interesting essays on "trashing the dress" at some ladyblogs I frequent regularly - Jezebel had the original post at http://jezebel.com/5375652/trash-the-dress-the-choice-of-the-rebel-bride and Fatshionista did a really interesting commentary at http://www.fatshionista.com/cms/index.php?option=com_mojo&Itemid=69&p=273.
(Bleh, I hate that there's no html on blogger commenting.)
Anyway, it's an interesting discussion on privilege, and then another discussion on that discussion ( and yes, that is me commenting). I definitely like the idea of destruction and deconstruction as art, and I think culturally, we've built the wedding dress up to be something so utterly decorative that it's impractical for any other use, not to mention how expensive dresses are.
I don't think it's a good idea to spend thousands on a brand new, custom-fit dress that you'll wear only for a few hours and then never wear again, only to know that you're going to ruin after just smacks of privilege, entitlement, wastefulness and blatant consumerism.
But I really like the idea of re-inventing the dress to be something else - hack it up, dye it, turn it into a dress you'll wear again, make some interesting decor - and I think that's both creative and sustainable. And for god's sake, don't spend so much on it in the first place.
I know a woman who painstakingly preserved and saved her wedding dress for almost three decades before her 6-year-old granddaughter got into her closet one afternoon and cut much of it up for Barbie clothes. Ha!
ReplyDelete...and who knows if your daughter (if you ever have one) or grandaughter would even WANT to wear it or even be able to fit into it??
ReplyDeleteI know of a group of ladies, all of whom were divorced, who got together for a "wear the dress one more time" party - they all wore their wedding dresses and instead of trashing the dresses, trashed their ex-husbands all night.
What fun.
I think that would be so much fun! I don't think that I'd want to wear my wedding dress twice, even if I got divorced and remarried. It would just be a good excuse to buy a new one... and then trash that one too!
ReplyDeleteIt's a cool thought - with the paint and the dirt...lying on the train tracks, etc.
ReplyDeleteI still have my ridiculously expensive gown, in a coffin box, the dry cleaners' term, not mine.
I've only tried it on once since I've been married, and that our one year anniversary. After that, it seemed so cumbersome to get out of the box, fluff up the train, etc.
I would like to think if we have kids one day, and should they be girls, that they will kick and scream for the right to wear my gown. But, that's a long way off.
And there is a possibility that may not happen.
And if it doesn't...I'll have my can of paint waiting!
Didn't see this blog before. Love the idea of destruction & deconstruction! Dislike the idea of someone spending all that money on a one-time affair- what a waste. But then I never grew up with fantasies for even getting married, let alone having a beautiful wedding dress. Mine was inexpensive & not "bridal" at all but still didn't look like a regular dress. I only wore it once after the wedding & that was after I deconstructed it a bit. Don't recall what happened to it next, but probably went to a Thrift Store. My second wedding we spontaneously went to the justice-of-the-peace, I wore T-shirt and jeans, then after a nice dinner out we went back home and after awhile we did what we loved most which is creating art together.
ReplyDelete