A Mist of Tulle

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 98, 16 July 1927, Page 17

A Mist of Tulle

BBgr-i ROM what legend land come those yards and Tfp' yards of exquisitely /Cj) filmy laces which enhance the shapely heads of their fair wearers ... or the cobwebby veils of tulle, with their misty, billowy folds, that lend to the most twink-lingly-vivacious maiden an air of ethereal delicacy? From out the dusty pages of bygone years we find a number of pretty stories that account for the custom of veil-wearing . . . but often they leave it what it was to us before ... a veil of mystery. The most authentic story of the

veil is perhaps the one that says that the custom comes from early AngloSaxon times, when it was decreed that during the marriage ceremony four tall men should hold a square piece of cloth called a care-cloth over the heads of the bride and bridegroom, to conceal the bride’s maidenly blushes. Sometimes it was found difficult to obtain the services of four groomsmen and people came to realise that as.

after all, it was the modest little bride who really required the sheltering cloth, she might as well wear it herself. As it now enveloped her so closely it was essential that it should be of the thinnest cloth, so that while effectively covering her blushes it should not interfere with her vision. 4 But whatever origin they had, from whatever land or clime they came .. . the veils that the bride of to-day may wear are bewildering in their variety and beauty. The springtime bride may revert in all smartness to the lovely traditions that surround the wedding veil and array herself in a quality of witchery that belongs intrinsically to the European race from which she has sprung. Picturesqueness and piquancy, are of a surety, the pages attending upon the brides of this particular springtime! Whatever the legend of the wedding veil and whatever its individual developments in the land whence its most popular variations have come, Fashion is most interested at the moment in suitability to types. Sublimely, Dame Fashion goes on her way, combining all that 13 most charming in religious custom and romance with particularly beautiful costumes. From out the medley of dainty wedding modes that have been evolved the whimsical bride may choose her own veil . . . and be happy in the consciousness that in each of the newest versions of ancient art there is to be somewhere that spiritual glamour which bestows all the exquisite beauty of sacred sentiment upon womanhood at its most splendid hour. This season there shall come veils of such bgauty that the springtime bride shall delight to treasure them throughout her wedded days to come.

As solemn vows unite ye We hallow ye to joy! This hour shall still requite ye, When bliss hath known alloy! —Wagner’s Wedding March