Re-creating Annie Bowman’s 1884 Wedding Dress
Author: Kirby Moore
On January 2, 1884, Mr Edmund Bowman Jr. married Miss Annie Lewers Cowle at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Adelaide, after which, the newlyweds travelled some 130 kilometres north-east to the manor commissioned by Edmund Bowman on the outskirts of Mintaro, South Australia: Martindale Hall.
Often, weddings of the wealthy were recorded in detail and though both Edmund and Annie came from prominent families and likely had a wedding ceremony that reflected this, none of this information remains. Apart from the lovely Bowman wedding portrait (Figure 1.), and a surprisingly short, unremarkable announcement in the paper, the details of Edmund and Annie’s ceremony have been lost to time.1
Thus was born my idea to reconstruct Annie Bowman’s 1884 wedding dress (Figure 2.). The main aim of this project was to investigate the role of reconstruction in the conservation of history and heritage, and present Martindale Hall museum-goers with a material object of Bowman history that resembled the original — as it was photographed — as closely as possible.
To display this reconstruction, I made a custom-built mannequin based on Annie Bowman’s actual measurements. I used measurements taken from extant garments that once belonged to Annie, now held by The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), to estimate Annie Bowman’s bust, waist, and height measurements, and built a mannequin to reflect her actual size.2 Additionally, I created the full set of undergarments necessary to achieve the silhouette of the era. Given that the Bowman wedding took place in early January 1884, Annie’s dress was likely made in 1883—a key detail, as women’s fashion changed dramatically throughout the nineteenth century. I constructed a pair of combinations, corset, bustle, and petticoat to support Annie’s wedding dress reconstruction (Figure 3.).
To create the reconstruction, I carried out an extensive study of the 1884 Bowman wedding photograph (Figure 4.) — the only known existing evidence of Annie’s wedding dress — and supplemented missing information with primary sources such as photographs of extant garments, illustrations and fashion plates, advertisements, and written descriptions from newspapers and magazines. Annie’s wedding dress consists of two garments, a skirt, and a bodice, and appears to have been made from a lightweight fabric, unlike the heavier, structured silks popular in wedding dresses of this era. The Bowman’s January wedding fell in the middle of the Australian summer, and cotton provides a breathable, moisture absorbing fabric appropriate for these conditions.
I began reconstructing Annie’s wedding dress with the most challenging garment: the skirt. I used antique dressmaking books, and altered the patterns based on the classic 1883 bustle silhouette. Annie’s skirt was floor length, with tiered flounces in the back, there appears to be horizontal tucks on these tiers and across the front of the skirt, and a distinctive lace trim around the front hem. I did not find any contemporary fashion illustrations with tucking similar to Annie’s skirt; it was not until I later re-visited other photographs of Annie that I discovered an image where she wore a dress that, similarly to her wedding dress, featured rows of tucks across the front (Figure 5.). Given my difficulty in finding examples of dresses with this kind of tucking, and the fact that Annie was photographed in two such dresses, I am led to believe that she had a particular fondness for this kind of decorative tucking.
Another major consideration was the skirt’s the lace trim. I had four possible options as to how to achieve this for the reconstruction: find a visually similar lace; source 1880s antique lace for the purpose of authenticity; make, or commission a visually similar lace; to use modern technology to craft a lace substitute trim. I find the lace hem on Annie’s skirt to be the most eye-catching feature of her wedding ensemble and as such I considered it most important to replicate the distinctive design. For that reason, I decided to have the ‘lace’ trim laser cut. I created a digital illustration of the lace design using the Bowman wedding photograph and had the pattern laser-cut from fabric by a specialised company. I believe the trim closely resembles the distinctive lace in the photograph and is the perfect final touch to the reconstruction of Annie Bowman’s wedding skirt.
The bodice was the last piece I reconstructed for Annie’s wedding dress; it appears to have been straight-waisted with centre-front buttons, a high collar with lace, long sleeves, tall lace cuffs, lace trim at the centre-front, and three pleats running from waist to shoulder on each side front. Historical bodices are complex to construct, and I relied on videos of historical garment examinations and photographs of bodice interiors to assist my understanding of their construction. It was necessary for me to have the lace collar and cuffs custom-made by a crochet-lace maker for this reconstruction, as antique lace is often damaged, discoloured, or the incorrect size. The decisions I made throughout this reconstruction process were based, first and foremost, on the visual evidence available in the Bowman wedding photograph. Because much of Annie’s dress is not visible, I made educated choices as to the design that were supported by extensive research and primary sources. Ultimately, I believe I have been able to reconstruct Annie Bowman’s wedding dress in an authentic and recognisable manner.
Reconstruction has the ability to demonstrate how clothes were made, how they functioned, and what they actually looked like in a material sense. This reconstruction is an act of conservation; it preserves the interpretation of the original garment and presents museum-goers at Martindale Hall with a tangible depiction of the past—something three-dimensional that embodies the historical wearer—and a material object relating to Bowman history, bringing this history back to the rural community where it belongs. Annie Bowman’s wedding dress reconstruction was put on display on January 2, 2024, on the 140th anniversary of Annie and Edmund Bowman’s wedding, as a celebration of the Bowman history of Martindale Hall.
