Wedding dress of Victoria, Princess Royal

The wedding dress of Princess Victoria, Princess Royal was worn by the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria in 1858.

On 25 January 1858, a royal wedding took place that was designed to align the fortunes of Europe's two most important powers, Great Britain and Germany's chief principality, Prussia. The bride was Victoria, or "Vicky, Princess Royal", the oldest child of England's longest serving queen, Queen Victoria, and her husband, Prince Albert. She married Prince Frederick of Prussia, later Frederick III, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, son of Wilhelm I and Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, at St. James's Palace, Chapel Royal, St. James's, London, England.

The dress was manufactured by Mrs Darvill, designed by Janet Fife, and composed of a rich robe of white moire antique; ornamented with three flounces of Honiton lace. The design of the lace consisted of bouquets in open work of the rose, shamrock, and thistle in three medallions. At the top of each flounce on the front of the dress was wreaths of orange and myrtle blossoms, the latter being the bridal flower of Germany, every wreath ended with bouquets of the same flowers and the length of each being so graduated as to give the appearance of a robe denned by flowers. The apex of this floral pyramid was formed by a large bouquet worn on the girdle. The train, which was of the unusual length of more than three yards, was of white moire antique, trimmed with two rows of Honiton lace surmounted by wreaths similar to those on the flounces of the dress with bouquets at short intervals.^[1]

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