Bridal dress worn by Giuseppina Mondelli in southern Italy, on 26 September 1926 (TRC 2020.3882a).The TRC in Leiden recently acquired a wedding dress that was worn in Italy on 26 September 1926. As with so many other textiles and garments, it is far more than a garment that was worn at a festive occasion many years ago. It unveils a family history that goes back for a hundred years, and in a wider context testifies to the sometimes tumultuous history of Italy in the 20th century. The blog is written by Francesco Montuori, a TRC volunteer who writes about his great-grandmother, whose wedding dress is now a precious item in the TRC Collection (TRC 2020.3882a).

"This wedding dress used to belong to my great-grandmother, Giuseppina Mondelli (1900-1980). She was born in Sannicandro, a small village close to Bari, in southern Italy, and was my grandmother’s mother, on my father’s side.

She married Vincenzo Perna (1892-1979), a general practitioner who had served in WW1 as a medical officer. He had studied in Naples since there was no medical school in Bari in that period.

Wedding photograph of Giuseppina Mondelli, 26 September 1926. The bride's dress is now in the TRC Collection (TRC 2020.3882a)After they married, which they did quite late in life (for the 1920's), since she was 26 and he was even older (34), they decided to settle in Sannicandro and they lived there for the rest of their lives. There he was a doctor while farming several fields in the same area.

In the summer of 2019, unfortunately, my grandmother Grazia, who was the couple’s only daughter, died at the age of 92, and we were left with a very large apartment and, first and foremost, a huge amount of items to deal with: Chinoiserie porcelain cups, silverware, all kinds of knick-knacks, books. She was a bit of a hoarder, after all.

However, we were extremely surprised when we discovered that she had kept her mother’s bridal dress for the whole time. I and my family were more than happy to donate it to the TRC, where I have often been working in the last couple of years while studying at Leiden University.

The dress, although no longer in pristine condition, is quite a remarkable garment. It is made of silk, cream coloured, and decorated down the front with similarly coloured lace with a stylised floral motif. There is also a 'belt' of applied glass 'pearls' around the waist area. Despite the poverty of the 1920s, it is a very rich piece, further adorned with a long veil and several small features, meaning that, although not much money was available, being richly dressed on the day of your wedding was an absolute priority, and her dress answers the demand of fashion of the mid-1920's.

Giuseppina Mondelli, in the centre, during her honeymoon in Milan, 10 October 1926.

Together with the bridal dress, we also donated several pieces of both handmade and machine-made laces, since we know that they will receive the right treatment at the TRC, far better than being stored in a box somewhere. And we know that my great-grandmother would be more than happy knowing that her wedding dress has travelled all the way from her small village to the beautiful town of Leiden."

Francesco Montuori, 3 October 2020.