What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II
Excuse me showing off my literary knowledge there (alright, my literary copy-and-paste-from-wikisource skills but whatever), but I've been pondering names recently. Not, as you'd expect, based on what my own name might be after the wedding (hahaha don't even go there it's really hard okay), but more based on what other people name things. Like, say, wedding dresses.
I discovered in much of my online dress browsing that some of the things I think of when I see a word are apparently not the same things wedding dress designers think of when they see a word.
For example, when Pronovias think of the word Pergola, they think of this:
But when I think of the word Pergola, I think of this:
I discovered in much of my online dress browsing that some of the things I think of when I see a word are apparently not the same things wedding dress designers think of when they see a word.
For example, when Pronovias think of the word Pergola, they think of this:
But when I think of the word Pergola, I think of this:
When Pronovias think of the word Bangor, they think of this:
When I think of the word Bangor, I think of this:
Sometimes browsing wedding dress websites feels a bit like I'm in a The Princess Bride:
So when I find dresses that are named after literary characters, you can imagine where my mind goes, given my previous thoughts on the matter. You see, apparently it's not just manufacturers of wedding decorations who don't think things through fully when it comes to literary references. Oh no.
Maggie Sottero is pretty bad for it too. Take, say, the Ophelia dress.
Man, that dress is so pretty. But wait, there's something oddly familiar about that name. I think it might be a bit famous?
OH THAT'S RIGHT. SHE DROWNED HERSELF.
The infamous Hamlet's girlfriend, he spent basically all their scenes together being awful to her, and killed her father, and thus ended up driving her mad and plummeting to a watery grave.
Or, the equally stunning Reagan dress:
Now, slight spelling difference aside, Regan was the name of one of the awful daughters in King Lear, if we are sticking with the Shakespearean theme, who faked affection for her father to get a bigger share of his land, drove him mad, and cast him out of her household, totally defenseless, whilst her husband and brother-in-law conspired to overthrow him and get the crown for themselves.
On a slightly more modern note, guess who else was called Regan?
Just the wedding-day look I'm after.
As well as my usual favourites, Juliet and Gatsby, there's also the Lillith dress.
So pretty! So froofy! So unfortunately named after the mother of all demons!
In Jewish folklore, Lilith was Adam's first wife, created at the same time as Adam, from the same earth. Unfortunately, this apparently made her somewhat... bolshy, and she refused to become subservient to him. This probably makes her one of the first feminist icons, however because it is like thousands of years ago and religion is involved, it makes her evil. According to one source, she flounces out of Eden and refuses to come back, instead chosing to do the horizontal tango with the archangel Samael, who no-one can quite decide whether he is good or evil; according to others she flies around at night kidnapping babies; and in yet another gives birth to 100 demons a day. I think I also vaguely remember one source having her growing demons from her waist, and everything below her waist was monstrous and deformed, but I'm having trouble finding the reference for that, but still, not a nice image.
Of course these are only a handful of the bizarre dress names out there, and I would like to add that these are beautiful dresses and the name associations are entirely my own. After all, I'm sure it doesn't mean anything at all if your dress is named after a girl whose boyfriend refused to marry her, killed her father and drove her to killing herself. That's not the sort of thing that could be an omen at all.
(no but seriously I'm just messing around here, please don't think I'm predicting doom and gloom based on the name of your wedding dress)
When I think of the word Bangor, I think of this:
Sometimes browsing wedding dress websites feels a bit like I'm in a The Princess Bride:
So when I find dresses that are named after literary characters, you can imagine where my mind goes, given my previous thoughts on the matter. You see, apparently it's not just manufacturers of wedding decorations who don't think things through fully when it comes to literary references. Oh no.
Maggie Sottero is pretty bad for it too. Take, say, the Ophelia dress.
Man, that dress is so pretty. But wait, there's something oddly familiar about that name. I think it might be a bit famous?
OH THAT'S RIGHT. SHE DROWNED HERSELF.
The infamous Hamlet's girlfriend, he spent basically all their scenes together being awful to her, and killed her father, and thus ended up driving her mad and plummeting to a watery grave.
Or, the equally stunning Reagan dress:
Now, slight spelling difference aside, Regan was the name of one of the awful daughters in King Lear, if we are sticking with the Shakespearean theme, who faked affection for her father to get a bigger share of his land, drove him mad, and cast him out of her household, totally defenseless, whilst her husband and brother-in-law conspired to overthrow him and get the crown for themselves.
On a slightly more modern note, guess who else was called Regan?
Just the wedding-day look I'm after.
As well as my usual favourites, Juliet and Gatsby, there's also the Lillith dress.
So pretty! So froofy! So unfortunately named after the mother of all demons!
In Jewish folklore, Lilith was Adam's first wife, created at the same time as Adam, from the same earth. Unfortunately, this apparently made her somewhat... bolshy, and she refused to become subservient to him. This probably makes her one of the first feminist icons, however because it is like thousands of years ago and religion is involved, it makes her evil. According to one source, she flounces out of Eden and refuses to come back, instead chosing to do the horizontal tango with the archangel Samael, who no-one can quite decide whether he is good or evil; according to others she flies around at night kidnapping babies; and in yet another gives birth to 100 demons a day. I think I also vaguely remember one source having her growing demons from her waist, and everything below her waist was monstrous and deformed, but I'm having trouble finding the reference for that, but still, not a nice image.
Of course these are only a handful of the bizarre dress names out there, and I would like to add that these are beautiful dresses and the name associations are entirely my own. After all, I'm sure it doesn't mean anything at all if your dress is named after a girl whose boyfriend refused to marry her, killed her father and drove her to killing herself. That's not the sort of thing that could be an omen at all.
(no but seriously I'm just messing around here, please don't think I'm predicting doom and gloom based on the name of your wedding dress)
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