Purple wedding dress, 1899, English, made and worn by Harriett Joyce (married name Sams), with wax orange blossom spray

Purple ribbed silk jacket bodice and skirt. The jacket has cream satin drapery down the front, overlaid with white machine lace and braid trimming. The flared cuffs of the sleeves are faced with cream satin and chiffon wrist ruffles. The front of the skirt is trimmed with applied braid and covered buttons. The ensemble is accompanied by wax orange blossom hat trimming.

Transcription from registered description made in 1982: It is made from purple ribbed silk with high band collar, sleeves with full gathered shoulders, lapels and centre front fastening concealed under a slightly gathered vest of machine-made lace over white satin. The collar and lapels are trimmed with a white braid with 'lover's knot' design and a paste trimming with the same motif is stitched in the centre front. The cuffs are flared and pointed, faced with white satin and have a lisse ruche trimming. The bodice is lined with lavender cotton sateen, boned at the seams and fastens with hooks and eyes. There is a white grosgrain waist-band which fastens with hooks and eyes.
The matching skirt has a straight cut front, slightly flaring side and back panels. There is an inverted pleat at the centre back. It is trimmed with bands of matching silk braid arranged down the centre front to curve away to the side front where they are trimmed with a covered button. The skirt fastens on the left hip with bronze metal press studs and the slightly gathered waist band with hooks and eyes. The lining is of purple sateen, it may be interlined and the hem has an extra layer of stiffening.

Given by Mrs Muriel Baker

Worn by Harriett Joyce (b.1863), the donor's grandmother, to marry Percy Raven Sams on 8 June 1899 at St Andrew's Church, Earlsfield, Middlesex. The family came from High Easter near Chelmsford. The bride chose to be married in a purple silk day dress due to her advanced age (she was 35). While purple is typically a half-mourning colour, there is no known association with a death in the bride's family.

Before marriage Harriett was a lady’s maid to Mrs Frances Boevey in West Kensington. Harriett's husband was a representative from the Water Board. She was a accomplished needlewoman who made her own dress and who altered it soon after her wedding to make the skirt narrower (parts T.309C to F-1982 are two skirt gores and interlinings; the other parts H to J are also fabric remnants from the dress) and more fashionable, although the alteration is so neat as to be invisible. Harriett was known as a neat, brisk woman who was said to have bought her and her husband's home with her own savings. (Information given by donor upon delivery of dress)

This crisply tailored purple silk dress was made and worn by Harriett Joyce for her marriage to Percy Raven Sams at St Andrew's Church, Earlsfield, Middlesex. Harriett worked as a lady's maid, while Percy worked for the London Water Board. Harriett chose to wear purple, as at 35, she considered herself too old for a traditional white gown. However, she trimmed her hat with wax orange-blossom, which was worn by brides for their first marriage.

The availability of sewing machines, commercially printed dress patterns and affordable but good-quality machine-woven silks and trimmings enabled skilled needlewomen to make sophisticated gowns at home like this dress. As a lady's maid, Harriett had excellent sewing skills, enabling her to finish her dress to a very high standard. A coloured day dress that could be worn for best after the ceremony was an extremely practical option for brides of limited means. Soon after the wedding, Harriett slightly altered the skirt, removing two side panels to create a narrower, more fashionable silhouette. She also added purple silk braid to the skirt-front so it could be worn separately with a blouse.

T.309, A to B-1982