Two dresses for a bride in Baghdad

IWhite satin, worked with flowers

Khatoun married in Baghdad in 1904. Her white satin outfit had a high neck, long sleeves and a fitted bodice. Across the front, flowers and curling stems spread through the embroidery; more flowers climbed the skirt. Even the cuffs had their share. There was a great deal to look at before you reached the hem.

The shape followed European fashions that had reached Baghdad through its trade and schools. The embroidery belonged to the city’s own rich tradition of dressmaking. Khatoun’s wedding clothes brought the two together: white silk satin in a fashionable cut, finished with the intricate metalwork of home.

IIAn evening in red

For the henna celebration, there was velvet. Deep red, with pale metal thread worked around the shoulders, cuffs and hem, it was quite a different dress. Up close, its flowers have little centers and slender leaves. The stems loop and turn across the fabric, each small flourish part of a much larger pattern.

Among Baghdad’s Jewish families, the henna evening was a celebration before the wedding, bringing women from the two families together. There were songs, and henna for the bride’s hands, with wishes for good fortune and children. The velvet dress belonged to that part of Khatoun’s wedding; the satin to the marriage itself.

Together, the two outfits carry something a single wedding photograph could easily miss: this was more than one occasion, with more than one way to dress a bride.

IIIChildren in different countries

By 1951, Khatoun’s children were making their lives beyond Iraq. That summer she left Baghdad for Beirut. At the turn of the year she reached Tehran, and in the spring of 1952 she was in Italy, visiting the countries where her children had settled.

The Jewish community she had known in Baghdad was dispersing. For her family, Beirut, Tehran and Italy became places where a mother could find her children. The city of her wedding was now one place among several in their history.

Her grandson knew her through a passport photograph from those years: an older woman in a checked blouse, her hair drawn back. The young bride in velvet and satin was someone he had yet to meet.

IVA gift from her children

Khatoun’s children gave her wedding clothes to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. One of her daughters was then living in New York.

With the dresses, the grandson’s picture of Khatoun grew. Alongside the familiar face in the passport came the white satin, the red velvet and all those small embroidered flowers. His grandmother had once been the bride for whom they were made.

The checked blouse in the passport and the embroidered satin belonged to the same woman. Her grandson could now picture both.