If you check out the Wikipedia link to the title of my post, you'll read the closing sentences used to describe the meaning behind "Trash the Dress":
It may be done as an additional shoot after the wedding, almost as a declaration that the wedding is done and the dress will not be used again. It is seen as an alternative to storing the dress away, never to be seen again.
Is this how you want to remember your big day? Maybe if you are marrying Satan.
Hmmmm. Dare I suggest a better alternative? This is about the most wasteful thing you could do with a wedding dress. And wedding dresses cost a lot of dough. Even people that I normally consider rational beings somehow manage to shell out close to a grand for a wedding dress. Society seems to dictate that the norm is to break the bank for a dress to go along with the wedding ceremony and reception. And really, I have no beef if people want to spend that kind of money on a dress - I just wish they would consider alternatives to using it once and trashing it. To me, setting your dress up to be disposable is a strong indicator about how you feel about the rest of your marriage.
A surprising amount of resources go into wedding dresses. They take yards and yards of fabric. How much fabric? Well that depends on the dress. All I know is that I used a little over two yards of cotton fabric to make a kitchen apron. And wedding dresses are usually way more complex than aprons. Common wedding dress fabrics include silk, lace, satin, brocade, organza, velvet, etc. Some of these fabrics, like silk and lace, can be very labor intensive to process. The common synthetic fabrics often are manufactured using toxic chemicals which pollute the environment and endanger the lives of the poor workers around the world that make them. Let's not forget about thread, beading, embroidery, crystals, feathers and all other sorts of decorative accents that are common to most dresses. Whether your dress was made in a sweat shop in Asia, or by a seamstress in your home town, it probably took a lot of time and sewing skills to create.
If you stop and think about the resources and money that went into your wedding dress, why would you ever want to trash it? Like lots of other wasteful habits, I think there is a pretty strong link to conspicuous consumption. Brides buy very expensive dresses to indicate their excitement for their marriage and the importance of their wedding ceremony to others, just like a big ol' diamond ring indicates the grooms love for his bride when it is sparkling on her finger for the world to see. An expensive dress proves that brides have the financial resources to fund such an extravagant purchase. Some may argue that a wedding dress is not an extravagance, it's a necessity. But when your wedding dress purchase could fund half a years rent for many people, or a years worth of food, it seems a bit over the top. And then, if you take your expensive dress and destroy it after one use, you're telling the rest of the world that you have enough money and power to make what ever you want into a disposable item. I still notice that many wedding announcements in newspapers feature detailed descriptions of the wedding dress, including the designer and fabric and a photo of the happy couple. This emphasis on the dress and other parts of the ceremony and honeymoon (another indicator of apparent access to resources) just plays into the American fixation on consumption and who has what.
So what do you do when you've got an expensive wedding dress hanging in your closet? Well, the first alternative is to rent your dress instead of buy it in the first place. My good friend "Rasta P" is getting hitched this summer and she decided to rent a dress. She got to go try on dresses at a rental shop, and once she chose her dress, it was fitted to her and reserved for her use until her wedding day in August. After the wedding, the dress will be cleaned and put back into rotation for use by another bride. The rental of her dress is going to cost a few hundred dollars. She isn't phased by the idea of not having the dress in her closet for the rest of her life. Another friend of mine purchased her wedding dress with the idea that she would have it altered after the wedding into a cocktail dress. She was strategic in choosing a style of dress that would be alterable - she chose a strapless long column dress that could be hemmed at the knee after the wedding. Smart move!
I think people need to get more creative when thinking about uses for wedding dresses beyond trashing them for some seemingly cool looking photographs. The sentimental folks could use the fabric for other things like quilts, or remove the beading and make jewelry to wear and hand down to relatives or friends. Make a fancy outfit for that first puppy. Or baby. The non-sentimental folks seem like they'd have all sorts of cool ways to see their dress used again. Donate it to Brides Against Breast Cancer and let the dress be sold to help fund the final wishes of people with terminal breast cancer. Check out the I Do Foundation to donate not just your dress, but your left over reception food to local charities. Contact local theater troops and donate your dress to their costume department. Let your best friend or relative use the dress for their own wedding. There are so many options for dress reuse or recycling that don't involve destroying the dress for the sake of destroying it. Besides, Trash the Dress photos might seem bold and artistic, but do you know what is more cutting edge? Nudity.
No comments:
Post a Comment