The Harris have acquired this wedding dress from a Preston dressmaker, Hatfield and Butler, in purple grosgrain silk with ruffled cream silk collar and cuffs and pearl border trim. The wedding dress was made by a Preston dressmaker and has their label on the inside waist tape, which reads Butler & Hatfield, Costumier & Milliners, Preston.

In the 19th century, there was a fashion for British dressmakers to style themselves as ‘costumiers’ to sound more attractive to the fashionable elite. This dress was worn by the great grandmother of the donor’s husband and the wedding took place on 20th May 1899.