Here come the bridal gowns from Hollywood

Published on Tuesday 22 December 2009 21:57

EVERY bride dreams of feeling like a filmstar on her wedding day.

Now an exhibition is set to recreate how celebrities such as Meryl Streep, Nastassja Kinski, Keira Knightley and Helena Bonham-Carter looked for their big-screen big days.

Wedding dresses featured in a host of blockbuster films and hit TV series are being tracked down to go on display at Scotland's national costume museum in the spring.

Changing bridal fashions stretching back more than 200 years will also be mapped out through the costumes featured in TV productions and films including Pride and Prejudice, Howard's End, Mansfield Park, and Madame Bovary.

Staff at Scotland's main costume museum, near Dumfries, have joined forces with one of the leading costumiers to the worlds of film, theatre and television to create the new exhibition.

It is expected to be one of the highlights of the exhibitions programme unveiled yesterday by National Museums Scotland officials.

Others include a major exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland that will chart the history of Scotland's lighthouses, inspired by the forthcoming 200th anniversary of the famous Bell Rock, off Arbroath.

Edinburgh Castle will host an exhibition reliving the crucial but hidden role played by the Women's Land Army during the Second World War. It is being held at the war museum there two years after the government agreed to honour the thousands of women who worked on farms and in markets to keep food supplies running.

May will see the Museum of Scotland unveil the long-awaited exhibition bringing together 30 of the fabled Lewis Chessmen from their separate homes in London and Edinburgh.

The Marriage in the Movies exhibition is expected to prove a major lure for visitors to the National Museum of Costume, at New Abbey, in Dumfriesshire.

A spokeswoman for the museum said: "The dresses in this exhibition were all designed and made for the screen but adhere closely to the period they are set in.

"As well as this they are charged with telling and reflecting the story they represent."

MUSEUM HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2010

&#149 Meet Your Maker, National Museum of Scotland, 29 January-14 March : A chance to see nine of Scotland's leading craftspeople provide an insight into the processes behind their work.

&#149 The Women's Land Army, National War Museum, 26 February-February 2011: Scotland finally pays a fitting tribute to the thousands of women who played a vital role ensuring food kept appearing on the nation's plates during the two world wars.

&#149 The Jet Age, National Museum of Flight, from April: A chance to relive the start of the jet set era and discover how the Boeing 707 was the first aircraft to make transatlantic travel a dream come true for thousands in the 1960s.

&#149 Marriage in the Movies, National Museum of Costume, 9 April-31 October: A chance to see the lavish costumes worn by some of the best-known brides from TV and film, including Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Tess and Howard's End.

&#149 The Lewis Chessmen, National Museum of Scotland, 21 May-19 September: Thirty of the historic chess pieces will be reunited from their homes in Edinburgh and London for the start of a four-venue tour of Scotland, which will also take in Aberdeen, Shetland and Stornoway. Thought to have been made in Norway in the 11th or 12th century from walrus ivory and whale teeth, they were discovered in Lewis in 1831.

&#149 Scotland's Lighthouses, National Museum of Scotland, 15 October-April 2011: The 200th anniversary of the completion of Scotland's most famous lighthouse, the Bell Rock, has inspired this exhibition which will look at the people who designed, built and worked in the nation's lighthouses.