AN IRAQI CUSTOM-MADE PINK SATIN SILK BRIDAL DRESS AND SQUARE COVER
Baghdad, Iraq, early 20th century

Comprising a midi dress of pink satin silk, with tight waist and flared gown, worked in fine gold tape with stylised flowers, the scooped neck and sleeves with scalloped edges, machine and hand-stitched, the waist cinched by vertical vents; and an associated square cover, similarly worked with rows of metallic thread circles raised on cords, lined in white cotton.

The dress 116cm long from the nape

The cover 88cm x 88cm

Provenance: Private Middle Eastern family collection for at least seventy years.

This bridal dress was gifted to the mother of the present owner by her grandmother. It had been specially commissioned for the owner's mother wedding in Baghdad, and reputedly, it had been sewn by a Jewish lady who was renowned in the community for her talent with metal thread embroideries, and who apparently delivered the dress to the lucky bride in a bundle that she carried through the village over her head.

The bride might have sat in a green robe for the sacred liturgy of the wedding ceremony, but would change up to seven times during the ensuing celebrations. All the outfits would have been of different colours of silk and velvet. The dress change, or badla, highlighted the bride’s family status and wealth. The present pink outfit would have been part of that joyful parade.