It may be a wedding dress but I have no proof. I do know that it is a dress that is duplicate of my Grandmother Brooks’s wedding dress. The layers of the ribbons allowed the woman to shorten it to make be a custom fit. They could hem them up into the inside or the could cut it. The photo was taken in the late1800’s and was from a set of family albums.
I have two albums from a house that my father demolished in order to build an new home. The photos from the family have given me clues that the house was built in the late 1800’s. The town was Osceola, Iowa established in 1870s or earlier. From the photos I have found a dominate name of Webster in which there are many of the family buried in the town cemetery.
I have a photo of this in a rectangular format but can not pull it from my Sepia Saturday posts. This is my Grandmother Mable Zella Wheeler who married Leroy Brown in July of 1913. She became my Grandma Brown. Leroy Brown died in 1937 and a few years later my Grandmother remarried a widower and became Mrs. Oscar Brooks.
My Grandma had a photographer help her to get that ribboned hat to look good. I still have the ribbon hat and wedding dress which I am planning to give to a younger first cousin soon.
Other photos from the album gave me images of dresses but not necessarily wedding dresses. The style of dress does make it look to be a newer styled dress with the drapery on the skirt.
It is definitely not a wedding dress but is at the photo studio with all of there street corner props. Probably this is more of the early 1900s. Things are more complicated with this dress than the original ribbon dress that I started out with at the top photo. The diamond shapes and patterns at the bottom of the double ruffled makes it more complicated in design. In the photo albums I did notice that the studios have lots of combinations of props in which for them to take photos. I have a couple that have a stairway included.
The last photo I share today is one of a couple standing on the fake street corner. The dark colored dresses were popular but the guy even has his top coat on along with his hat. The drapery on her dress is a little bit more complicated as the style developed.
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