Marriage à la mode, an eighteenth-century wedding dress, hat and shoes set from the Olive Matthews Collection, Chertsey Museum

A rare and important group of items, a set consisting of a wedding dress, hat and shoes, form part of the Olive Matthews Collection at Chertsey Museum. This paper looks in detail at the construction of each of these garments. It also provides an account of how key aspects of provenance were uncovered. Other examples of contemporary wedding dresses are discussed. Finally it goes on to demonstrate how the newly uncovered facts about these garments, reviewed alongside contemporary social and economic contextual details, can further enhance our understanding of these and similar surviving pieces.