Designer recreates 1854-made vintage Scottish wedding gown

Their Wedding Gown Designer, Deb Griffin, is an upbeat, cheery woman who just loves to help women look their best for their special day. Deb has a personality fit for any TLC Wedding Show, and in the six months of the store’s opening has already worked on some pretty remarkable items.

Deb has already designed and created several veils and head-pieces for excited brides to match their wedding gowns, has sewn bustles and fitted bridal parties for their big wedding day. Her latest project? A vintage wedding gown from Scotland in 1854 that has been worn in three weddings, and was re-designed to fit a different body type each time. This time around, Deb was given the task of re-creating the original dress’ form – from a single image.

The gown was originally created around Glasgow, Scotland and first worn in 1854 by Janet Turnbull when she married Matthew Bogle near Shettleson, a suburb of Glasgow. It is a cream-colored silk gown with a deep royal blue floral pattern (the tradition of solid white wedding gowns wouldn’t catch on until much later).

It was then worn again in 1937 by Christina Bogle on her wedding day. At that time the dress was already at least 83 years old. There were a few small additions to the gown and a few pieces of fabric were added to the dress and hand-sewn lace was attached to the cuffs and collar. It was then worn again in the 1970’s, and was cut apart and altered to fit the style of the time.

Deb was able to look at the first image of the dress (in black and white) and re-create the original sizing, pattern, and embellishments. The dress was first cleaned and restored by Treasured Garment Restoration’s award-winning specialty and vintage cleaner, Duane Schumann before Deb took on the task of re-creating the unique gown.

The gown has recently been prepared for inspection by the family, and they are looking forward to seeing the gown and witnessing a small bit of their own history. The family will be inspecting the gown at Treasured Garment Restoration’s location in Stillwater on July 15th at 10am before it is wrapped and preserved for generations to come.

“It brought tears to my eyes to see the beauty of the fabric, and how well preserved the gown had been. It was such an honor to have been a part of such history,” Deb Griffin stated.

Treasured Garment Restoration