Glass fibre wedding dress

The Turner Museum of Glass at Sheffield University's Department of Engineering Materials is based on a collection of glass objects owned by W E S Turner, a chemical engineer who specialised in glass technology in the 1900s. One of the objects at the museum is this blue wedding dress and accessories made entirely of glass fibre. The dress was worn by Turner's second wife, Helen Nairn Munroe, who was a leading glass artist in Edinburgh. They married in 1943 and as a mark of respect for the esteem people had for Professor Turner and Helen Munroe, the dress was made by from glass fibre by Glass Fibres Ltd of Fairhill, Glasgow. They also made the hat, bag and shoes. While the bride was wearing the shoes, the glass fibres in the heel of the shoe apparently cracked and cut her so she was probably in some pain! The glass fibre dress catches the light in different ways and feels smooth to the touch. It would be enormously expensive to manufacture and is very heavy.