Lifestyle
Is This the Most Notable (Purple) Wedding Dress Ever Worn?
The brides wore plum-colored silk.
Considered one of them, Anna Murray, was married on Sept. 15, 1838, to Frederick Johnson, who had just lately escaped from slavery. Born Frederick Bailey, he had used the surnames Stanley and Johnson to evade slave catchers, and would later rename himself once more, as Frederick Douglass, earlier than turning into a outstanding abolitionist, statesman and writer.
The marriage befell at 39 Lispenard Avenue, in what’s now the TriBeCa neighborhood of Manhattan, on the residence of the abolitionist David Ruggles. After the swiftly organized ceremony, the newlyweds departed that very same day for New Bedford, Mass., a protected haven for fugitive slaves.
On Sept. 15, 2022, 184 years to the day of that marriage ceremony, the second bride, Cassandra Bromfield, arrived on the similar web site, which is now an outpost of La Colombe Espresso Roasters, in a robe designed to evoke the one worn by Ms. Murray.
However Ms. Bromfield, a 65-year-old dressmaker, was a bride solely in spirit. She had made and worn her gown on the request of Lana Turner, the chair of the Harlem Literary Society e book membership, who had organized a small occasion to honor Ms. Murray and Mr. Douglass on the anniversary of their marriage ceremony. (Ms. Turner shares her identify — and birthday — with the actress Lana Turner, who died in 1995.)
The afternoon gathering, attended by some 50 folks, featured readings in regards to the couple’s historical past and performances by the West Village String Quartet and the vocalist C. Anthony Bryant. Ms. Turner, 72, billed it as a marriage reception and arranged it to focus on Ms. Murray’s pivotal however typically behind-the-scenes position in her husband’s public life.
“Anna Murray Douglass is a determine that will get misplaced within the sauce,” stated Ms. Turner, who lives in Harlem. There’s little point out of Ms. Murray in her husband’s writing, and although Mr. Douglass was essentially the most photographed man of the nineteenth century, there are not any footage of the couple collectively regardless of their 44 years of marriage.
Ms. Turner was impressed to stage the marriage reception after studying “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by David Blight, and Mr. Douglass’s autobiography, “Narrative of the Lifetime of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.” The descriptions of Decrease Manhattan within the 1830s in each books spurred her to go to the location of the couple’s marriage ceremony on Lispenard Avenue, she stated. Whereas doing so final summer season, she received the concept for the occasion.
Ms. Murray and Mr. Douglass have been born in Maryland. A free girl, she was working as a housekeeper and laundress once they met in Baltimore, and she or he later financed his escape to New York with cash she had saved from working and from promoting one in all two feather beds she had owned, which have been a luxurious good on the time.
“She couldn’t learn or write herself, however she knew how you can save,” Ms. Turner stated of Ms. Murray, who was believed to be round 25 when she married Mr. Douglass, then 20.
Few particulars of their marriage ceremony have been recorded, however a 1923 article in The Journal of Negro Historical past by the couple’s daughter Rosetta Douglass Sprague, one in all 5 youngsters Ms. Murray and Mr. Douglass had collectively, famous that “a brand new plum coloured silk gown was her marriage ceremony robe.”
With this colourful truth in thoughts, Ms. Turner known as Ms. Bromfield in late July with a query: Would she create a plum silk marriage ceremony gown for an occasion on Ms. Murray’s and Mr. Douglass’s marriage ceremony anniversary in September?
Although Ms. Turner and Ms. Bromfield have been solely social acquaintances, “there was no hesitation,” Ms. Turner stated of Ms. Bromfield’s response, even when Ms. Turner instructed that the designer would additionally mannequin the gown.
Ms. Bromfield shortly started working in her studio within the Williamsburg part of Brooklyn, the place she additionally lives. She started with on-line analysis about silhouettes and dressmaking methods, discovering sure YouTube channels focusing on historic style, specifically American Duchess, particularly useful. Having no description of the garment past its shade and material, she got down to create a gown that hewed carefully to the type of the interval, with a full skirt over petticoats, a corseted waist and an exaggerated gigot sleeve, which puffs out on the prime of the arm however is narrower on the wrist.
Girls of Ms. Murray’s standing, she famous, would have merely worn the nicest gown they owned for his or her marriage ceremony, whatever the shade. The couple’s 1838 marriage ceremony additionally befell earlier than it turned widespread for brides to put on white, a convention that started after Queen Victoria of England wore a white satin robe at her 1840 marriage ceremony to Prince Albert.
For the plum silk material, Ms. Bromfield went with Ms. Turner to Preview Textile Group in Manhattan’s garment district. Earlier than Ms. Bromfield might start establishing the gown, “first I needed to pad the model to be me,” she stated, noting that the unique robe was worn by a lady some 40 years youthful than she is. “After I received the proper match for the sample I made, I started chopping it out of the material,” she stated.
To function a barrier between her physique and the gown’s keep — a corset-like piece that laces on the again — Ms. Bromfield made an below layer often called a chemise. “Everytime you see these interval reveals they usually have corsets subsequent to pores and skin, they’re simply making an attempt to be horny,” she stated. “It wouldn’t be worn subsequent to the pores and skin as a result of it will get too soiled.”
The robe’s gigot, or leg of mutton, sleeves have been notably difficult for the designer. “They have been the factor that stumped me essentially the most,” Ms. Bromfield stated. To take care of the sleeves’ form, she connected dense, pillowlike pads to their insides.
Ms. Bromfield added distinctive touches to her model of the gown, which included quilting and beading the bodice, and embroidering Ms. Murray’s identify contained in the hem of the skirt. She additionally embroidered the phrase “American” contained in the gown utilizing pink, white, blue, black and inexperienced threads in homage to the American and Pan-African flags. Materials in these 5 colours have been used for the skirt as properly.
“I did all of this stuff that might make it me,” Ms. Bromfield stated, including that as she remade the marriage robe, she felt a kinship with Ms. Murray, who was additionally a dressmaker and seamstress. “I needed to really feel like her and I believe she felt glamorous, regardless that they needed to stand up and go.”
Although the brides wore plum, the reception featured a number of outfits in shades of white, together with that of its organizer, Ms. Turner, a frequent topic of the New York Occasions style photographer Invoice Cunningham. She wore a customized gown made with a white harlequin sample upholstery material by the seamstress Eleni Rodas and a parasol hat by the milliner Heidi Lee. (Beyoncé wears a bigger model of Ms. Turner’s hat within the teaser video for “I’m That Lady,” a track on her newest album, “Renaissance.”)
After the occasion, Ms. Bromfield’s gown was returned to her studio. She and Ms. Turner hope to discover a everlasting residence for it at a museum or an educational establishment.
Ms. Turner additionally plans to stage one other marriage ceremony reception subsequent 12 months, with extra music and readings that honor the life and legacy of Ms. Murray.
“I do that as a result of Anna got here and received me,” she stated.
As a newly single woman in my 50s in Los Angeles, I was terrified. I’d been married so long that the last time I’d heard the words “sexy” and “hot” was when I’d ordered sea bass in a spicy shiitake broth. I hadn’t been nipped, tucked, suctioned, filled or augmented. I figured I stood a better chance of being hit by lightning than hit on by a good-looking guy.
Understandably my girlfriends were getting weary of my “I’m going to die alone” attitude so they dragged me out to have some fun, which I assumed meant a glass of wine and a nice cheese plate, not shots of tequila in a trendy nightclub in Westlake. The last time I was in a club I was doing the Hammer Dance in parachute pants! I was in over my head. What if no one checked me out or asked me to dance. My self-esteem was already so low that I considered spending the rest of the year in bed. Maybe I just needed 11 months to reevaluate my Sleep Number and catch up on “The Bachelor.”
As it turned out, guys don’t ask you to dance anymore. They just move in on you. One guy moved in so close, it was less about dancing and more about grinding. I joked that in some countries, we were now officially married.
He didn’t get the joke, and I was not about to stay with a man with no sense of humor. I was starting to enjoy myself when fate reminded me that I was newly separated and supposed to be miserable and made me trip on an unseen step. I fell. Hard. On a concrete floor.
I was mortified. I was sure people were laughing at me, but instead, they just stepped over me on the way to the bar. Alcohol trumps everything. I got up, dusted off my pride and went back on the dance floor. I was in the middle of “raising the roof” when a pocket-sized man approached me and asked if I liked his friend. At first, I thought he was referring to his penis in the most unimaginative way, but then he gestured behind me to his actual friend — a thirtysomething tall, dark and gorgeous man. And me definitely likey!
He introduced himself in broken English as Daniel. He had just moved to Southern California from Italy to be a chef at a local hot spot. I felt like I was stepping into the pages of a Harlequin romance. Pretty soon he’d be shirtless on a horse, and I’d be behind him, holding his abs so I didn’t fall. Like I really needed a reason.
He suggested we go back to his apartment for Prosecco and more dancing, and I did what any mid-50s woman would in my situation: I threw all reason, good sense and safety concerns to the wind and blurted “Yes, God, yes!”
Daniel asked if I had a friend who could join us because the pocket-sized man had ironically big pockets and would pick up our tab and drive us in his fancy SUV. I knew convincing a girlfriend wouldn’t be easy, so I went for the jugular. I used guilt. I’d been miserable for months going on years. Did my friends really want to deny me one night of a superficial, meaningless lust connection?
After a speedy ride where I sat on my one good butt cheek, the four of us arrived at Daniel’s apartment in Agoura Hills. He popped open some bubbly and made a toast that was seductive and unintelligible, but I was suddenly in my head.
What was I doing? I wasn’t ready for sex. I wouldn’t even get naked in front of a mirror! And what about the bump on my butt from the fall that was swelling by the minute? Would it be too conspicuous if I sat on a bag of ice or frozen peas? Before I could get to the freezer, Daniel pulled me and my spiraling in for a slow dance and he started singing to me in Italian. It was corny, off-key and incredibly romantic. My girlfriend, Shauna, seeing where this might go, asked Daniel’s friend to drive her home. (That is a comedy of errors for a whole other essay.)
I didn’t say goodbye. I was too focused on Daniel’s roaming hands that were headed south for warmer regions. I yelped as he touched the bruised cheek then quickly recovered with a flirty laugh. Encouraged by my fake flirty laugh, he started undoing the buttons on my jeans. I stopped him and moved his hands up. He moved them down. I moved them up. I wondered if you could have sex with your clothes on. It had been a minute since I’d had sex with someone new. Maybe things had changed.
He took my hand and led me to the bedroom. I looked at the bed and briefly wondered if the sheets were clean. As a mom, I could get stains out of anything. My domestic reverie was cut short as he took off his shirt. I looked at his ridiculous body and I knew it was my turn. I also knew I wasn’t ready. I got into bed fully clothed, and he crawled in next to me. He pulled me in and kissed me, and I forgot all about the divorce, the heartache and the fear of being alone. I was making out with a hot Italian guy with a hematoma on my butt that was now the size of a ping-pong ball, and it was exactly what I needed. I felt hotter and sexier than any sea bass, but most important, I felt hopeful. Maybe I was going to be OK after all.
The author is a Golden Globe-winning TV comedy writer from England. She lives in Woodland Hills, but her adventures happen everywhere. She’s on Instagram: @mariaannebrown
L.A. Affairs chronicles the search for romantic love in all its glorious expressions in the L.A. area, and we want to hear your true story. We pay $400 for a published essay. Email LAAffairs@latimes.com. You can find submission guidelines here. You can find past columns here.
Sparta Candle Co. soaps inspired by Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and The Tortured Poets Department album.
Sparta Candle Co.
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Sparta Candle Co.
Sparta Candle Co. soaps inspired by Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and The Tortured Poets Department album.
Sparta Candle Co.
The official Taylor Swift online store is chockablock with earrings, hoodies, vinyl and other merchandise promoting the star’s latest record-breaking album, The Tortured Poets Department.
But there’s also a parallel industry devoted to selling crafty products inspired by Swift’s music and style — and it’s thriving.
“We’ve made soaps inspired by all of Taylor Swift’s albums. So of course we’re excited to introduce this one: Tortured Poet!” says Duane Swenk in a TikTok video. It’s been up for about a week, and has already been viewed more than 300,000 times.
Swenk is the spokesperson for his family-run soap and candle business, the Sparta Candle Co. — and a big Swiftie. Wearing a beard, beret and The Tortured Poets Department T-shirt, he’s showing off a soap in the shape of a cup of Earl Grey tea. It comes with a detachable saucer.
“This soap has notes of black tea, bergamot and lemon,” Swenk goes on to say in the video. “It’s a perfectly moody scent to pair with Taylor’s incredible new album.”
Months before The Tortured Poets Department dropped, Duane Swenk’s daughter, Jennifer Swenk — who serves as the Sparta Candle Co.’s CEO and founder and is also a devoted Taylor Swift fan — was hunting for hints about it to turn into potential product concepts. When she browsed through the upcoming song titles, she saw one called “So Long, London.”
Jennifer Swenk said the combination of London and the overall poetry theme of the album gave her the idea for the soapy tea cup.
“I felt like poetry goes hand in hand with having a cup of tea,” she said.
Music and style inspire shapes, scents and colors
Taylor Swift’s music evokes fanciful forms and scents for Jennifer Swenk. But Ashleigh Kiser is thinking in colors. Her company, Sewrella Yarn, has created a line inspired by Swift’s Eras tour, in which the pop star performs songs from her entire catalog.
“Something that is more of a love song, like the Lover era, those were very light, very pastel, very kind of ethereal colors,” said Kiser of matching Swift’s hits with yarn hues. “While the Evermore era got darker, more moody, more complicated colors.”
The company also just released a yarn collection based on The Tortured Poets Department.
The Tortured Poets Department yarn collection from Sewrella Yarn.
Sewrella Yarn
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Sewrella Yarn
The Tortured Poets Department yarn collection from Sewrella Yarn.
Sewrella Yarn
Kiser said she loves the way Swift inspires a sort of virtuous circle of creativity in fans.
“There were customers of ours who were buying the yarn that was inspired by the tour. And then they were going and knitting a sweater or a top or whatever their project was. And then they were then wearing that to Eras tour concerts,” Kiser said. “So it’s like the music informs the yarn which informs the project. And it just keeps going.”
Communal feeling
This communal aspect of creating merchandise inspired by Swift appeals strongly to baker Emily Henegar. The Nashville, Tenn.-based entrepreneur’s one-woman business, Cookie in the Kitchen, makes intricately decorated cookies incorporating details from Swift’s work and life.
She said she sometimes incorporates other artists’ designs into her own. For example, Henegar said she decorated a cookie with an image she found on social media of a beanie hat a fan made for Swift, which the star then wore to a football game.
Cookie in the Kitchen’s cookie collection riffing on Taylor Swift’s relationship with football player Travis Kelce.
Cookie in the Kitchen
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Cookie in the Kitchen
Cookie in the Kitchen’s cookie collection riffing on Taylor Swift’s relationship with football player Travis Kelce.
Cookie in the Kitchen
“I’m just scrolling Instagram, getting to pull inspiration from many different places,” said Henegar.
Henegar said she doesn’t mind when other makers incorporate her artistry into their own Swift-inspired products. “It’s nice if they can just credit me on their Instagram posts,” she said.
While Cookie in the Kitchen, Sparta Candle Co. and Sewrella Yarn mostly serve customers through their websites and/or brick-and-mortar stores, many small businesses focusing on Taylor Swift-oriented products look to Etsy and other arts ands crafts-focused online marketplaces to reach fans.
“I mean, talk about bringing people together, and talk about really amplifying creativity,” said Etsy trend expert Dayna Isom Johnson of Swift’s impact on the platform.
Johnson said entrepreneurs on Etsy aren’t just coming up with sales concepts ahead of the artist’s album releases and tour dates. They’re also quickly responding to what Swift sings, says and wears.
For instance, Swift’s lyric “So make the friendship bracelets” in her 2022 song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” created an unprecedented demand for friendship bracelets on Etsy. (According to company data, while Swift was touring across the U.S. in 2023, it saw a 22,313% increase in searches for concert-inspired friendship bracelets.)
A selection of Taylor Swift-oriented friendship bracelets on Etsy.
CustomBraceletWorld/Etsy
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A selection of Taylor Swift-oriented friendship bracelets on Etsy.
CustomBraceletWorld/Etsy
Etsy witnessed a similar spike in searches after Swift wore an unusual choker necklace at this year’s Grammys.
And this latest album, with its references to poetry — “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith” — has been turning Swifties into wannabe poets; suddenly everyone wants a blank journal.
“We’ve seen a 727% increase in searches on Etsy for poetry-related items,” Johnson said.
Swift’s response to fans’ creativity
Swift herself seems to embrace her fans’ creativity. She’s been known to send notes and even homemade gifts to creative super-fans.
“They are constantly just showing me love in different ways,” she said in a 2012 video for VEVO music network. “And I really appreciate it.”
One small business owner making Swift-themed T-shirts and other items told NPR they have had products taken down from online marketplaces for possible copyright infringement.
But University of Pennsylvania law professor Jennifer Rothman said she is not aware of Swift launching lawsuits against small entrepreneurs, and she said that Swift’s overall openness toward fan-based creativity makes good business sense.
“Taylor Swift only benefits, I think, from having all this fan enthusiasm,” Rothman said.
The music industry trade publication Pollstar estimates Swift grossed close to $200 million in authorized merchandise sales last year. Rothman said most of these small scale, highly creative riffs on the artist’s life and work often don’t significantly impinge upon Swift’s brand or bottom line.
“If anything, they boost it by boosting the positive feelings around her,” Rothman said. “The fans still want the official merchandise and will wait in line for hours and hours to get it.”
Jennifer Vanasco edited the audio and digital versions of this story.
R. Kelly‘s crusade to make a dent in his lengthy lockup in prison has crashed and burned … a federal appellate court just upheld his conviction and sentence to cap off the week.
The “Ignition” singer was sentenced to 20 years in prison in his child porn case out of Chicago, and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals just affirmed that sentence — this after Kelly tried having it tossed, citing the statute of limitations having passed as his defense.
In reaching its conclusion, the court called Kelly’s 30-year sentence from his New York case the “elephant in the room” … and says the Chicago case sentence was set with that in mind.
This means that even if RKelly wins his appeal of the New York racketeering case, he’ll still likely have to serve another 18 years behind bars for the Chicago conviction https://t.co/u7pkbUQtwV
— Jason Meisner (@jmetr22b) April 26, 2024
@jmetr22b
According to the court, the sentence also makes sense in light of the “horrible, horrific” nature Kelly’s crimes … for which Kelly was convicted in 2021.
In his New York appeal, Kelly is arguing the highly influential “Surviving R. Kelly” Lifetime docuseries influenced the trial before it even got off the ground and he was unfairly painted to be guilty.
But with this ruling out of Chicago federal court, the future may not be too promising for his chances in New York … but the courts will obviously have the final say.
Time will tell if he has the same luck as Harvey Weinstein — for now in Chicago, not at all.
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