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Jewish News 19 October 2017
The Big Event/ Bridal dress
If the dress fits It costs a fortune and you wear it once, but can you still slip into that wedding gown? By Brigit Grant It is the dress that changes your life. The only item of clothing you will ever own that alters a prefix because you step into it as a ‘Miss’ and then – hours later and worse for wear – remove it as a ‘Mrs’. Yes, it’s hard to believe that after weeks of peaking at it resting on a padded hanger, the same dress is thrown on a chair or, worse still, the floor, before being packed away, never to be seen again. But that is the joy of wedding dresses, be they fish-tailed, corseted or duchesse satin; they turn you into a princess for the day and the same cannot be said about a cardigan, not even the cashmere kind from Ralph Lauren. Not that you’re likely to try on a million cardigans before shouting: “This is the one” to the sales assistant and burst into tears or spend tens of thousands on a jumper and never wear it again. But that’s what women have been doing forever without regret, although their parents may have a different take on this. Of course, there are indus-
trious types who utilise their voluminous white frocks by turning them into evening wear or bed cushions, though I’ve yet to meet a former Jewish bride who revamped her Caroline Castigliano. It’s much more likely that one day your little daughter will rummage in mummy’s wardrobe and wear the headdress and shoes again, as I wore my own mother’s veil and heels at my grandma’s house. The dress, however – if not given to charity or the gemach if you’re Orthodox – will remain undisturbed, until that fateful day when curiosity strikes and you wonder if it still fits. Is it possible that the gorgeous gown you starved yourself into ahead of the big day will do up after years of making Friday night dinners and giving birth? Keen to know who has even had the courage to give it a go, I posed this question to members of the popular website – Jewish Women Talk About Everything – and was overwhelmed by the response. “I borrowed my dress from a friend, but after
THEN NOW
Chava Kovacs on her wedding day, above, and wearing her dress on her fifth anniversary
having three girls, I don’t think I would fit into it. It was tight to begin with...” confessed Hela. “I can, but only because the corset lacing will make it tighter,” said the now skinny Nora. But some were brave enough to try their luck at my request, the first being Rebecca Spiewak in Israel who married in August 2010 and, after seven years and two children, slipped it on without a struggle. This encouraged Chava Kovacs, also in Israel, to step forward, although she admitted: “Not at the moment, because I gave birth two months ago, but I tried on my dress for my fifth anniversary and it still fitted. Let me drag up a photo...” And there she was in her living room wearing the dress. “I’m one of those ‘too busy to eat’ kind of mums. I have seven kids and no help...lol” she wrote, which was small consolation for the brides who couldn’t get it past their calves. That was not a problem for Michele Dujardin in New Jersey, who sent then-and-now pictures. “I got the dress off the rack from a really awful retail store. I hemmed and bustled it myself, but it had those attach ‘sleeves’ that never quite stayed up because they were set too far apart on my shoulders. I think I looked quite lovely in it then, but don’t find it as cute now that I’m older (and divorced).” Try though I did to encourage former brides