Fabric!

[triskellian]

This afternoon's shopping trip with blondeccgirl culminated in the purchase of acres of beautiful silk dupion (that slightly bobbly silk - cruelty-free since it involves the death of no silkworms, according to M). It's scarlet shot with purple, so it mostly looks darkish red, and slightly shimmery. I have a small piece of it beside me as I type, and it's very lovely indeed. The trip was especially fun for seeing the slight double-take of the sales assistants on realising this was for a wedding dress, not a bridesmaid's dress: it seems that getting married in a colour other than white or ivory is still quite unusual.

secretrebel - there was also some rather gorgeous chiffon with embroidered butterflies, and I would have bought you some if it hadn't been £35 a metre. Sorry ;-)

Comments

[unknownid.livejournal.com]

sounds lovely!! I didn't know that regular silk was mean to silkworms -- I thought it was just made out of what silkworms naturally extruded out of their little silkworm butts.

I'm surprised they were surprised -- red is the traditional color for wedding garb in China & India...

[triskellian]

I thought it was just made out of what silkworms naturally extruded out of their little silkworm butts.
I did, too, but according to M there's boiling of their little silkworm butts involved at some stage in the proceedings.

red is the traditional color for wedding garb in China & India...
But here red is all scarlet women, blood and sex and all that stuff. Not traditional bridal virtues ;-)

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

But you eat meat.

[triskellian]

It's true, and the cruelty-free-ness of the silk (if in fact M's right) was not the deciding factor in the purchase of the stuff - I'm only mentioning it as an aside. But still, I wouldn't wear fur, and a lot of the difference between wearing fur and eating meat is just to do with picking a fairly arbitrary place in a big mass of grey and drawing a line, but that doesn't make the line not worth drawing at all.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I mostly agree, but if the line is wobbly instead of straight (as I guess mine is), then the question is raised as to whether much meaning can be ascribed to it.

[triskellian]

I think the line still has meaning if it's wobbly, because it's not just about how 'bad' you think each point on it is, but also how 'hard' it is to do something about it.

Not wearing fur, for example, is very easy indeed, whereas not wearing leather is rather harder (which is, I guess, why many vegetarians wear leather: quite an inconsistency, but a reasonable one IMO). Even if your assessment of the 'badness' of leather and fur is the same, I think it's reasonable to have them on different sides of the line. Silk's somewhere in between, so it's in a bit of a grey area for me, but, as you say, I eat meat, so wearing silk doesn't constitute a great inconsistency.

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

it seems that getting married in a colour other than white or ivory is still quite unusual.

Which is odd, given the original meaning of a white wedding dress and the proportion of (even allegedly) virgin brides these days.

[triskellian]

Exactly!

I'm approaching the whole thing as a chance to get the closest thing to my ideal dress I'm ever likely to get, I'm spending much less than the 'average' (because it's being made, not bought), and I fully intend to wear it again. These principles all seem so... well, sensible and obvious, that I'm constantly being surprised that so many other brides don't even think of them in their rush to get a dress that lays claim to a 'virtue' they don't possess, and that isn't even considered important any more. Strange.

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

Interesting reasoning, but might you be ignoring the concept of 'ritual sacrifice' in human societies throughout the ages?

People construct these totems to signify the occasion and then destroy them (or never use them) so it will be unique. It's not that I disagree with your reasoning, but I am moved to ask - will you be especially careful with this dress if you wear it in the future? Will each occasion you wear it be somehow connected to its creation?

I for one can fully see the rationale behind putting such items 'beyond use'

[triskellian]

I do of course understand the reasoning behind having a special thing that's only worn for one day, and I may yet find that 'pull' stronger than the pull to enjoy it some more. I don't know.

Rationally, I'm in favour of enjoying a thing, no matter how 'special' it is, because even if you wreck it the first time you use it, you've had one more 'go' with it than if you'd left it in a drawer and just looked at it every now and again. Less rationally, I also feel that special things 'deserve' (in some obviously nebulous way) to be used for their purpose. A dress stops being a dress if it's not worn and loved, and it is no longer fulfilling its dressly destiny...

So the short answer is, I don't know yet, but thanks for making me think about it.

[triskellian]

Forgot to say... since it will be a separate bodice and skirt, I may well not wear them together again, and there will be other bits of the outfit that will together make up the thing I will think of as 'my wedding dress', and I certainly wouldn't recreate the whole thing for some random party.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

It's scarlet shot with purple, so it mostly looks darkish red, and slightly shimmery

Sounds lovely ! Is this just for you, or also for the bridesmaids ?

chiffon with embroidered butterflies

That sounds wonderful as well.

[triskellian]

Just for me. Although I did also buy a tiny piece of velvet in the much darker red I'd like the bridesmaids to have (given that 12 September last year was swelteringly hot, this is just for colour-matching purposes, because I think velvet would be too much of a risk ;-)

I expect I'll wave pieces of fabric at you on Wednesday, if we're still on?

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I expect I'll wave pieces of fabric at you on Wednesday, if we're still on?

Yes and yes !

We're looking forward to it.