Wedding dress
Gladman & Womack
London
1885
In the 1880s the cut and decoration of fashionable dress frequently drew on historical styles. The drapery of this wedding dress, worn by May Primrose for her marriage to Major Herbert Littledale in June 1885, has similarities with a late 17th-century informal gown called a mantua. When the bride died only a year after her marriage, her family carefully preserved her dress.
Silk satin, skirt decorated with embroidered net, artificial pearls and metal thread tassels
Given by the Hon. Mrs S.F. Tyser
V&A: T.428&A-1990 [2011]