Some brides agonize over what to wear on their wedding day but not Abigail Kingston, who is about to become the 11th bride in her family to wear a dress made more than 100 years ago.
The LeHigh Valley Express Times reports that Abigail’s dress has been passed down through five generations in her family, starting with her great-great grandmother Mary Lowry Warren, who wore it when she got married in Buffalo, New York, in 1895.
In the 120 years since, it has been worn by nine other brides, including Abigail’s mother Leslie, who wore it in 1977.
The dress has been dry cleaned just once.
The keeper of the dress is usually the mother of the bride who wore it last. Abigail told her local paper that she was dismayed to find the dress had “disintegrating sleeves and browned satin” when she unpacked it, after asking the mother of bride No.10, who wore in the 1990s, to send it on down.
.jpg?resize=380%2C285)
It had also been altered multiple times, to fit brides of different size and shape.
She employed a dressmaker to turn the brown satin into a blush colour, and to re-create 80 hand-sewn pleats.
“It is still very, very fragile,” says Abigail, so she’ll probably only wear it for an hour before tucking it away for the next family bride.
