European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 13, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Der puff sleeves and Siim skirt. The gown features Ped and pouted Bustle Back complimented by a the 61 delicate Tafela bows on the head with Wing ribbons. To other Moat popular hem this year Are a / China Ailtie gown Vilh puffy Steeves Hal looks j on every figure and a Light Pink gown with old Jned touches designed Lor second weddings. A believes working Wilh a relatively Young staff and King work Home have been instrumental in ing up her hell a Pace. Ider regards As her greatest tribute the fact thai mothers bring in gowns she designed years ago kit if tha dresses can be worn again by their hers. Us with All the emphasis on exercise these Days g women tend in have much broader shoulders hearing the same Gowri is impossible she says. Up Phi i of the wedding Gawn Intuit by Pri Ciha Kidder r a valiant at Toft it a Kidder gown dorm in Pun to top Laet Border around the hum. Although while Wai and is the Standard color wadding gowns have been of other colors. ,. Even Black keeping track of trains Byj Iulai United press International Long after tha Flowers have faded and the music is just a memory the wedding gown remains. And whether simple in Puritan tradition or Laden with lace Flowers an Bustle he bridal dress o the american woman has reflected the history of the country. For example in the Case of Early settlers wedding dresses were not considered finery to be put away Lor posterity they Are not the gowns hat end up in our museums writes Catharine Zimmerman in the Bride s Book. These dresses were worn until they wore threadbare any excess material Tell Over ram making. Them was used in coverlets or  Zimmerman a Pennsylvania artist who designs Wai paper and fabrics spent nine years researching her Book which is a fascinating heavily illustrated history of the bridal gown to amen Lea. Some of the largest collections of bridal gowns Are at the metropolitan museum to new York the Brooklyn museum and curiously the Texas tech museum in lube of Texas Zimmerman said in a recent interview. Many of America s Early bridal fashions were originally european for example German and austrian women who settled in Pennsylvania which resembled their Homeland retained their european wedding garb of dark bodices laced Over coarse while shifts. Many american women Learned of the latest european styles from fashion dolls or do babies which wore miniature replicas of Lute scans garments Zimmerman writes. These circulating beauties were dolls Mada of Wax porcelain China bisque or  whether the gown included the Empire lines made popular by French Empress Josephine or the pan or. Which extended the Width of the skirt at the hip and could Range up to six feet America s wedding dress designs usually followed european fashion. In the Pioneer Days however american women had to think practical As Well As fashionable. While the wedding dress was usually Plain and Ihus reusable brides olten added a colourful touch with a Paisley shawl Zimmerman describes one As sixty live inches Square and in intend at the ends with hindu or mails. In Teardrop. Fan spread and Loop pattern it was made in red Rose Gold and  the shawls often imported and made of Wool. Inter were used to keep babies warm or were loaned on special occasions to visiting relatives for a parly or to help of keep them warm As they slept. Zimmerman says that veils which were a Symbol of purity did not appear in America until the late bin Century. Although while was and is the Standard color wedding gowns were sometimes of other colors Blue Lavender and in he 19th Century even Block. Black was the conventional wedding color Lor ii number of cultures Many germans poles and people irom slavic countries sported Black marital  Zimmerman writes. In fact she notes Black Satin wedding dresses and the carrying of Calla wifl5 also were in fashion in the 1930s. Crinoline dresses with hooped skirts such is Scarlett o Hara s in Cane with the wind came into fashion in the 1850s following the fashion dictates of Eugenie Wile of France s ruler Louis Napoleon. The making of All clothes and especially wedding gowns Wilh their Yards and Yards of material became vastly simpler in ibs 1 when Isaac Merrill Singer began manufacturing sewing machines in Boson. In the b70s, the Silhouette changed from the hoop skirt to the Bustle which made a Briet reappearance in the 1960s, when it was called the Butterfly pout Back or Bustle with a Peacock  toward the turn of the Century wedding dresses ranged from elaborate affairs of Silks and satins designed by Charles Worth to practical travelling suits Lor brides who left immediately Aller the wedding for a train or boat trip. In the 20th Century wars and the restrictions on fabrics prompted the simplification of designs. As technology progressed synthetic Libers such As Orion and Dacron polyester appeared in the 1930s and 40s, a id in Laier years the heavy Qiana that drapes Well. Whatever the fabric Zimmerman recommends that people who want to preserve their gown wrap it in acid tree paper without any plastic which increases humidity people who Worth on prese ving costumes Ollen Wear gloves to avoid humidity from their hands rom touching the material she said. The wedding gown has taken on All forms straight Skirls Short skirts hoops and even paper dresses. Whatever its style the Bride s gown remains the Centrepiece of the american wedding the stars and stripes Page 15