Mystery In White

From the Toronto Star:

Gown in Lake Ontario spurs theories: Jilted bride? Ad prop? Art project?
January 19, 2007
Joe Fiorito

Flotsam is floating wreckage and jetsam is that which has been thrown overboard; which of these is the wedding dress?

I have two friends, Edda Dolcetti and Peter Lenardon. They live in the west end, in a house full of her paintings, his photos, and art made by their friends. I have known them since Fort William; years and years.

They like to go prowling around the city with their cameras in the early morning, or of an evening when the light is right. They were on the boardwalk near the Humber River just before the snow fell when ... oh, let them tell the story.

Edda: "I was taking photos of the swans. They change all the time. They're wonderful to study. And the sun; when the light is right you get the reflection along the water's edge. I wanted to get a shot when I noticed this big white billowing thing in the water. At first I thought it was a garbage bag."

Pete: "I hoped it wasn't a body."

Edda: "It was a wedding dress. I could see it was puffy. The bow was at the top and the bodice was down. It was floating in the water, just far enough away that we couldn't reach it. I had my camera out. It was beautiful to shoot. I wanted to get closer. Pete got a stick of driftwood and dragged it to the shore."

Pete: "I dragged it artfully. If you gave it a swirl, it spread out." Who knew there was a technique for the dragging of wedding dresses through the lake?

Edda: "I couldn't stand the thought of it in the water. There was no veil, but we could see there was a headpiece and long gloves."

These things were too far out to retrieve.

Edda: "This guy came by as I was taking pictures of the dress. He said, `Hmm, good.' I guess he thought I'd thrown it in. He just said, `Hmm, good,' and walked away. I wanted to save the dress. It was so alluring in the water."

Pete: "Plus, we just got a new washing machine."

Isn't this why anyone buys a new clothes washer? Just in case a wedding dress drifts up on shore?

Edda: "Pete put the dress in a bag he'd found, and squeezed out as much water as he could. The dress was all sandy; when we got home I put it in a basin and rinsed all the sand out. Then I put it in the washer, on the delicate cycle, with some Woolite."

The wedding dress came out beautifully, and it is now hanging in their basement.

Edda: "It's taffeta, with a drop waist. There's lace and beading; you have puffy sleeves with rosettes, and a bustle with cascading bows and a long train. There is deep scalloped lace at the hem.

"The bodice has teardrop pearls, and the lace on the bodice is floral. The taffeta is synthetic. I don't know if it's polyester, but it's not real silk. There's no designer label. But it doesn't matter that it's synthetic; it's quite well-made. There is a lining, and some netting to keep the shape. I think it's a size 6. I can tell. I work with patterns."

Her mother was a seamstress.

Pete: "There's a photo of Edda when she was 5 years old, sitting at her mother's sewing machine. She made all her own Barbie clothing."

Edda: "Ha, ha; couturier Barbie. I made it all."

More to the point, she also made her own wedding dress, using three kinds of silk, with hand-painted panels; she is a first-rate painter, and she was painting on silk at the time. She still has that dress in her closet.

But what is the true story of the wedding dress in the lake? Edda: "It could be romantic. It could not be. I don't necessarily want to find out, but I do want to know that everything is okay. You shouldn't be throwing things like this in the lake."

Was it cast into the water by a woman whose marriage went sour in a hurry? Is this the dress of a bride who was jilted at the altar? Was it used as a prop in some crass advertising shoot? The too-clever handiwork of art students echoing Ophelia?

Or might this be evidence of some hip, new, previously unreported trend: the post-wedding ditching of the finery off the deck of a party boat hired by the happy couple?

Of this latter possibility Edda said, "I can't see it. I would never waste something like this." Pete thinks it was art students. I am inclined to consider sorrow.

What will Edda do, now that the salvaged dress is perfectly clean, undamaged and resplendent, hanging safely in their basement? "I don't know. That's a good question. I'd give it to someone, I would; some young girl might want to use it. But wedding dresses are so personal ..."

Pete: "A bride puts this on, she could step into a story."

But what is the true story of the wedding dress in the water?

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A nugget of a story here, I think . . .