German - Russian's MEMORABILIA Continued:
Clothing continued....
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Woman's velvet wedding dress with velvet apron
Before the 1900s, the general rule was: women wore black, not white, wedding dresses, however, in some communities, this changed in the very late 1800s and early 1900s when women, who were "virgins", wore white dresses / gowns... If not a virgin the bride wore "off white" [winter white] instead. In the late 1900s into the early 2000s in the USA, some of the more wealthy and fashionable gowns have taken to colors. Black wedding gowns have appeared at very formal weddings. The fashion cycle is always turning.
Before the 1900s, once a woman was married, she never wore color, only black. Also, her head was covered with a black scarf or headdress. Her shawl [few women wore overcoats] was, also, black, which may have some hints of color, such as red roses, a favorite symbol in Besssarabia. I don't recall seeing a black headdress with color. It may have black glass beads or black pearls if one was wealthy.... The wealthier women wore coats with fur trim and were usually black ... Some of the ladies had cloth "cover" coats to protect their clothing from mud being splattered upon their clothes while traveling... Instead of a headdress the wealthier ladies wore hats [size and shape depended upon the fashion of the time period].
My grandmother, Christina, nee Schweikert, Hein (b. 1885) recalled buying magazines that held the latest fashions and she would make up her own pattern and create a dress that matched the dresses she liked in the magazines. Most sewing was done by hand. Only the tailors and seamstresses in the cities had Pfaff sewing machines.... The more wealthy ladies would go to the cities and purchase their dresses from a seamstress. The village women bought material from the traveling merchant who came through the villages or at the market fair, like the large ones held in Taurtino / Bess. , S. Russia, which wasn't far from Borodino where she grew-up.
Christina often recalled her mother-in-law's closet that was built special for all the clothes she had purchased in Germany while visiting relatives. There was a dress with all the matching items needed such as shoes, purse, gloves... She remembered the number being more than 52 because her mother-in-law never had to wear a dress more than once each year.
Christine wore a black wedding dress with jade earrings which Ludwig had given her as her engagement present. They were married in 1905 in Kloestitz / Bess. by Rev. Peters, who had married her parents and her grandparents.... She wore a gold wedding band until her death at the age of 98 in Lodi, CA., USA.
*From Alfred Hein's
Photo
Collection - 2003
 Hein. Genealogy
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Hubert |
Schweikert Genealogy |