Did you know August 19th was a Jewish holiday? According to the Mishna, in the times of the temple, on Tu B’av — the 15th of the Hebrew month Av — the women of Jerusalem would dress in all white and go out and dance in the vineyards. Then, all eligible bachelors came to the vineyard to find a partner. Interestingly, the Mishna not only specifies the color of the clothing the women wore but also notes that the outfits were borrowed (Taan. 4:8, 26b) – which is a very different approach than that taken inmodern wedding dress.
The white love dresses of Tu B’av were borrowed so as not to embarrass any family who could not afford fancy clothing. Despite this being a time to look one’s best to attract a partner, the ancient women of Jerusalem did not even wear their own dresses. This is in stark contrast to modern wedding dress, where each bride chooses an expensive, extremely flattering, and unique white outfit, even though the wedding is a ceremony of unity and symbolizes the end of a couple’s search for a partner. However, with all the women wearing similar and simple dresses, the focus shifts to the women themselves and not their looks.
The wedding dresses in our collection are somewhat less bound by the custom of simplicity; the beautiful dresses in our collection demonstrate the great lengths to which a modern bride might go to procure a unique dress that she feels represents her style and personality. For example, in image B below is the wedding dress of Fanchon Hartman from 1924. This wedding dress is not only a product of its time but also a product of Fanchon, who specifically chose to wear an extravagant dress with a train, layered ecru silk crepe, and silk ecru silk charmeuse, with a hand-beaded leaf motif along the front. Three years earlier, in 1921, Hermine Schloss wore a more modest lace dress made by her aunt (image C). Even though both brides wore white dresses, each was one of a kind and even different shades of white – like the women who wore the dresses. The extravagance and color of the modern wedding dress ensure that all eyes are on her and the woman she has become – helping to reveal her personality via the dress, achieving a similar goal to that in Tu B’av in an opposite manner. Just as on Tu B’av, modern weddings are a celebration of love full of dancing, where the couple’s uniqueness is highlighted by the dress– its conformity with the custom of the white dress, but also its distinguishing stylistic features.
But what about the men? Why do they not wear white? Well, in traditional Jewish weddings, they do, and have done so for centuries! There is a tradition of Chossons, grooms, to wear a Kittel – a white robe under the chuppah, the wedding canopy (see Images D and E). The white is supposed to represent spiritual purity since, just like on Yom Kippur, when people have the custom of wearing white and men wear Kittels, a bride and groom are said to be forgiven of all their sins. Interestingly, there is also a connection between Tu B’av and Yom Kippur for seemingly the same reason, with Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel saying in the Mishna that Yom Kippur and Tu B’av were the happiest days of the Jewish Calendar (Taan. 4:8, 26b). While other brides wear white as a symbol of physical virtue or because Queen Victoria did in the late 1800s, Jewish brides and grooms traditionally wear white to symbolize their own unique personalities and to symbolize the new phase of their life that they are in. While the holiday of Tu B’av is no longer practiced as it once was, its memory stays alive at each Jewish wedding with the white of the wedding dress and Kittel.
