Wedding Dress 1935 - 1942

This wedding dress, rendered anonymously with graphite and watercolor, appears like a dream, or a forgotten memory on paper. It's like the artist was thinking out loud. I love how the soft watercolor wash gives the dress a ghostly quality, as if it’s fading into the paper, or perhaps waiting to be brought to life. The fine lines and detailed embellishments reveal an intimate connection with the subject, like the artist is tracing not just the form, but also the hopes and dreams woven into each stitch. You can tell it meant something to them. It reminds me of the ways in which we preserve and idealize important moments, turning them into something both tangible and untouchable, hanging between reality and fantasy. I can see this anonymous artist having an influence on fashion designers today. Artists feed off of each other like that!