Better than Christmas morning was how this non fashionista* described Monday morning at Te Papa when Tom and  I witnessed Keira Miller from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum unpacking an embroidered silk satin wedding dress designed by Norman Hartnell in 1933.

Keira is in Wellington to supervise the unpacking and setting up of Unveiled: 200 years of wedding fashion which opens at Te Papa tomorrow and runs till April. This is no ordinary frock or bridal show but a selection of stunning garments that are each works of art. Many with  amazing personal stories behind their creation, some of which were shared by Te Papa’s Claire Regnault Senior Curator History.

 


(If this doesn’t play on your mobile device, you can see it on Vimeo here.)

 

Keira will be talking more about the whole process of Packing and Mounting Unveiled at Te Papa on Saturday and that’s free, so you might want to turn up early to grab a seat.

Te Papa have embraced the internet this exhibition with blog posts and audio of  Conversations between curators Edwina Ehrman of the V&A and Claire Regnault of Te Papa. You can listen to these for  free before or after the exhibit or if you have a smartphone with wifi stream them during the exhibition.

As a die hard Viviene Westwood fan i have to say  her gown for Dita von Teese dress was close to being my favourite dress. However as a Absolutely Fabulous fan, it’s a bit hard to not stop and stare in awe at a Christian Lacroix and then mentally start screaming Lacroix sweetie. But I’ll decide for sure on Christmas day becuase it’s the one day a year when TePapa is a little more quiet than normal so it’s my favourite time to go exploring.

*fashionista’s are the ones who may or may not turn up to events wearing the same dress 😉