A trousseau is a collection of clothes, linen, fabrics, knitwear, towels, tablecloths, and other items gathered together for the bride to take from her natal home to help her set up her own new household. Most of these items are handmade, requiring a lot of personal work, e.g. embroidery or weaving on a loom. Unlike the dowry, which was the concern of the whole family, trousseaux were the duty of the bride’s mother.
An old custom still performed before ‘traditional’ weddings, is the public exhibition of the trousseau. Two chests are filled with clothes. Woven heavy cloths and blankets are placed together on a chest, neatly folded. All other linen and embroideries, from underwear to sheets and other covers, are taken out of their trunks, ironed, folded, and displayed on ropes.
For more information and a closer look, please just click on the images in this gallery.
