Late last month I shared with readers about a day we spent at Biltmore House and Gardens in Asheville, North Carolina. That post was centered around the beautiful conservatory and gardens at the estate. We had a really great time with our daughter, her husband, our three granddaughters and our dear friends, Larry and Harriette. If you missed that post, you might want to check it out
here.
In this post, I am writing about the spectacular
Fashionable Romance Wedding Gowns in Film exhibition, which is a collection of award-winning costumes from a number of great movies. The collection is presented by the Belk Company. In addition to the fabulous movie costumes, a number of hierlooms from the Vanderbilt/Cecil family are displayed throughout Biltmore House and at Antler Hill Village & Winery, another of the Biltmore properties included in the price of admission to the Biltmore House & Gardens. This wonderful collection will be featured from February 12, 2016 through July 4, 2016.
This will be the first of two posts about the
Fashionable Romance Wedding Gowns in Film exhibition at Biltmore House and Antler Hill Village & Winery.
You can read
more here about how Biltmore House and Gardens originated and how the Vanderbilt/Cecil family is still involved in the management of Biltmore House & Gardens. It is an awesome story about the history and lineage of the magnificent estate and the how it came to be.
We visited the Biltmore last year when the Downton Abbey "Dressing Downton" costume collection was on exhibit there. The taking of photographs was not allowed on the interior of the house. I was able to take only photographs of the exterior grounds and garden area and in and around the shopping and dining areas of the estate. Following are a few of the photos from a post of wrote about our visit to see the gorgeous
Biltmore Dressing Downton collection.
When we visited last month (March), I was very pleased that we were allowed to take pictures on the interior of the house and of the
Fashionable Romance: Wedding Gowns in Film collection. The Grand Entrance Hall and Winter Garden areas are, of course, decorated in a fashion befitting the wonderful palatial style in which the Biltmore was constructed.
There is an enormous and beautifully decorated faux wedding cake, situated just below an ornate chandelier. The flowers adorning the cake are in a bright mixture of colors and the chandelier covered with long, brilliantly glistening crystals, cascading like a waterfall. The chandelier, too, abounds with the same bright flowers which adorn the wedding cake! Long strands of lights are encased in swags of white tulle, hanging, in abundance, above all! My husband insisted on taking this picture with me in it.
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| Fashionable Romance:Wedding Gowns in Film |
Speaking of flowers, every room in which the collection is featured is enhanced by the addition of beautiful arrangements of a combination of fresh and very realistic faux flowers and foliage, such as this one in the Billiard Room:
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| Floral Arrangement in the Billiard Room of Biltmore House |
The Winter Garden, an enormous room that was originally built as a conservatory, boasts beautiful topiary of rose of yellow and white, as well as ficus trees, tropical plants and other beautiful plants and flowers.
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| Flowers and Plants in Biltmore House's Winter Garden |
This room was originally built as a conservatory when the house was constructed. This must have been a wonderful place for residents and guests of the Biltmore to go to sit and relax and take in the beauty all around. The above picture is just a snippet of what was in the Winter Garden the day we visited. It reminds me of some of the beautiful conservatory-like lobby areas of some of the grand hotels I have seen.
The rooms of the Biltmore House are the ultimate setting and absolutely perfect for displaying the collection of fabulous costumes from many noted films from over the years. These gigantic chandeliers hang over the enormous table in the Biltmore's banquet hall. Once again, the chandeliers are used to great advantage to add flowers, greenery and ribbons galore!
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| Chandeliers in the Grand Ball Room at Biltmore House's Fashionable Romance Exhibition |
The banquet hall is the setting for costumes worn in
The Duchess, 2008. Starring Keira Knightley as Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire and Ralph Fiennes as the Duke of Devonshire, The movie was set in the period of the 1770's. Michael O'Connor designed the costumes, which won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. The area around the costumes in the rooms are roped off. This room is enormous and the midday sun flowing through the enormous windows created a glare in this picture, but these costumes are wonderful.
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| Academy Award Winning Wedding Costumes Worn in The Duchess Film |
Notice how perfectly the chairs in this room accentuate the color of the Duke of Devonshire's suit. I cannot imagine having a fireplace in my home like the one pictured behind the wedding costumes here. It is actually several fireplaces in one! Have you ever?!
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| Fashionable Romance Collection at Biltmre House & Gardens-The Duchess |
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| Fashionable Romance Collection at Biltmore House & Gardens-The Duchess |
Aren't the tapestries hanging on the walls in the banquet hall absolutely astounding? I do not see how the background could not have been more perfect for these three costumes from The Duchess.
The next pictures were taken in the breakfast room. The room was actually not used for serving breakfast, but lunch, in the home. No matter what meal it was used for, it is posh! The breakfast room is the setting for displaying the costumes from the film,
Sense and Sensibility, 1995.
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| Biltmore House Breakfast Room |
In the movie,
Sense and Sensibility, 1995, Kate Winslet plays Marianne Dashwood and Alan Rickman plays the part of Colonel Christopher Brandon. Emma Thompson played the part of Elinor Dashwood and Hugh Grant, the part of Edward Ferrars. The movie is set in the early1800's, when most women wore their "best" dresses in which to get married. The custom of wearing white for wedding dresses had not yet become the fashion. The wedding dress worn by Kate Winslet (Marianne Dashwood) is more beige in color with a taupe trim. Jenny Beavan & John Bright were the costume designers and the costumes were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
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| Sense & Sensibility Costumes featured in Biltmore's Fashionable Romance Exhibition |
The costumes of Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant in their roles of Elinor Dashwood and Edward Ferrars are pictured below.
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| Costumes from Sense and Sensibility at Biltmore House's Fashionable Romance 2016 |
For the movie
Howard's End, 1992, the designers, Jenny Beaven & John Bright, also designed the costumes.
For their costume design in
Howard's End, the movie also received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Vanessa Redgrave, Emma Thompson and Susie Lindeman acted in the film.
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| Costumes from the Film Howard's End at Biltmore House |
Another photograph taken from a different angle of the
Howard's End collection of costumes follows:
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| Costume Collection from the Film Howard's End at Biltmore |
Did you notice the bust of Napoleon Bonaparte sitting on a pedestal in the above two pictures? I have done a little research on the subject and it seems George Washington Vanderbilt, the man who built Biltmore House, collected Napoleonic related items and artifacts and received several such items as birthday and/or wedding gifts and the bust was apparently one such item. Here is a closer photo of the Napoleon bust.
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| Napoleon Bust at Biltmore House |
Here are some costumes from
Pride and Prejudice, 1995.
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| Costumes from Pride & Prejudice at Biltmore's Fashionable Romance |
Helena Bonham Carter wore this wedding dress in
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, 1994 when she played the role of Elizabeth. Have you noticed all the beautiful flower arrangements such as the one in the foreground of this wedding dress.
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| Wedding Dress from the Film Mary Shelley's Frankenstein at Biltmore |
The setting for the above costume is the Biltmore Library with its astounding collections and sets of books!
Pictured below are costumes from the film
Daniel Deronda, 2002.
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| Costumes from the Film Daniel Deronda at Biltmore House |
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| Costume from Daniel Deronda Film Collection at Biltmore |
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| Wedding Costumes from Daniel Deronda Film -Fashionable Romance at Biltmore |
Juliet Aubrey played the role of Elizabeth, Duchess of York and future Queen Elizabeth in the movie
Bertie and Elizabeth, 2002.
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| Wedding Dress Worn in the Film Bertie and Elizabeth-Biltmore House Fashionable Romance Collection |
Out of Africa starred Meryl Streep and Robert Redford and the movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Milena Canonero was the costume designer for the film.
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| Biltmore's Fashionable Romance Exhibition - Out of Africa Movie |
Here are costumes from the movie
Hamlet, 1996 where actress Julie Christie played Queen Gertrude:
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| Costumes from Hamlet at Biltmore House |
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| Wedding Dress from the Movie Hamlet Included in the Fashionable Romance Collection |
This is the first of my posts about the
Fashionable Romance Collection Wedding Gowns in Film at Biltmore House and Antler Hill Village & Winery. If you enjoy romantic films as much as I do, I hope you have enjoyed my post. This post is unsolicited, but Biltmore's collection of costumes from romantic movies certainly stirred my romantic heart. This spectacular collection will be featured through July 4, 2016 and I hope to see it once more before it ends!
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