Cherish
Cherish
Clothing and celebrations are interwoven. Garments worn for important occasions, such as weddings, are often painstakingly made over hundreds or thousands of hours using the best quality fabrics and elaborate decorations. Beautiful clothes worn for special occasions are more likely to be preserved as they are worn less frequently and treasured for their sentimental value.
Object in focus: Yellow wedding dress
In the 1870s, local resident Jane Hussey ‘Jinny’ Townsend travelled to Paris to purchase her wedding dress. Jinny lived much of her life in Mompesson house, which is just down the road from the Salisbury Museum, and was the daughter of a local solicitor.
She was to wed Willie Hammick, on 17 June 1879. Willie had been a friend of her older brother George, who sadly died of consumption in 1875.
Jinny Townsend, yellow wedding dress, 1879, ©The Salisbury Museum collection
Willie and Jinny became close after Willie returned from America in 1878 and suffered from ill health.
Jinny chose a yellow wedding dress and matching yellow shoes, writing about the experience in her diary (which she had kept since the age of 15).
Jinny sadly died 3 years after she was married, in 1882 aged 38. She and Willie had three children, Georgina, Jane and Robert.
Jinny’s dress was inspired by the Aesthetic Dress Movement which was based on vibrant colours and simple lines.
It combined this with a fashionable silhouette of the period - the low bottomed bustle.
Although we may now see yellow as an unusual colour for a wedding dress, white only became the popular choice in the later 19th century. This change in fashion is often attributed to Queen Victoria who wore white when she married Prince Albert in 1840. Before this, it was popular to wear brighter colours such as red, green, blue or yellow on your wedding day.