The trousseau was a collection of clothing, linens, and bedding assembled by a bride before her wedding. It reached its peak in popularity during the Victorian era but has become less common in modern times. Bachelorette parties now gift kitchen supplies, bed and bath linens, and underwear. The change reflects the more modern and equal position between the sexes, where possessions are less important than love, compassion, honor, and friendship in a marriage.
Trousseau is a French word that loosely translates as bundle. In general, the word meant, and still means to some extent, the collection of dresses, linens, and bedding that a bride would assemble before her wedding. An elaborate trousseau would include new honeymoon clothes, table linen, bed and bath linens. A simpler trousseau might simply be a supply of new or repaired clothes, and whatever the bride can gather to prepare to become a homemaker.
Modern accoutrements are usually not that extensive. Instead, bachelorette parties can gift the bride with kitchen supplies, bed and bath linens, and underwear. The clothes, apart from the wedding dress and perhaps the “gone away” dresses are not always new, and some brides do not go on honeymoon trips. Many brides are already equipped with loads of household supplies and don’t require much in the way of gifts to help run a household.
The trousseau reached its peak of popularity in the Victorian era, with most upper-middle-class women thinking it would be unfit to marry without. Already before the mid-19th century, references in literature to weddings and clothing abound. In Pride and Prejudice, for example, Mrs Bennet points out how her daughter Lydia’s elopement and subsequent marriage to Mr Wickham are more shameful since Mr Bennet refuses to grant funds for the purchase of new clothes. “She was more alive with the disgrace that want of new clothes must reflect on her daughter’s nuptials, than with any sense of shame at her running away and living with Wickham two weeks before it happened.” The lack of clothes, for Mrs. Bennet, all but invalidates Lydia’s marriage.
Mrs. Bennet’s reflections place the trousseau, if somewhat exaggerated by Jane Austen, in its important light. For many women, preparing what would lead to a wedding—often begun before any engagement—was a rite of passage that allowed a woman to marry with her head held high. This view of dress requirement continued into the 20th century, and there are still many literary allusions to it. Occasionally, men of fortune bought trousseau for lower socioeconomic fiancées. Maxim De Winter, in Daphne Du Maurier’s 20 novel Rebecca, reflects on the fact that he and his wife should have stopped in London in order to buy more clothes.
However, as we get closer to the modern era, accoutrements become less common, except among the very wealthy. Formal wedding visits, second-day dresses, like the one worn by Scarlett O’Hara the day after her first wedding, are socially irrelevant for the most part. The cedar chest, once a storage area for a woman’s new clothes and linens, has become a beautiful piece of furniture for storing things, not necessarily those related to a woman’s marriage.
The change in the importance of the dowry perhaps reflects the more modern and equal position between the sexes. There are more choices, such as never marrying, and a woman can marry with many possessions. More importantly, what she needs to bring love, compassion, honor, and friendship into a marriage cannot be finely stitched and packaged in an attractive box. Also, a husband has to get married to the same things. Because the sexes are more equal, men often take as active a role as women in choosing things for a home and helping to purchase all the supplies needed to run a household. Thus the trousseau had its heyday, but it was mostly replaced by the more intangible “bundles” of caring emotions that are supposed to go into a marriage and be carried by both partners in a relationship.
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