Wedding Dress

Wedding Dress, Vitginia Allen and Joan Sabens, 19th-20th century

This cream-colored wedding dress is a 19th-20th century style with the extremely narrow waist, built in corset and long 7-gore skirt. The dress itself is actually comprised of two pieces, a bodice and a skirt, also known as a walking skirt. It is made of silk with lace ruffles and a bow around the waist. The fashion of the Victorian era was for women to have incredibly small waists, only made possible through the use of corsets. Madge Rhea Prince wore this wedding dress. Her granddaughters, Virginia and Joan, gifted this dress to the Fleming Museum in 1981.