The Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection was founded in 1915 by Professor Beulah Blackmore to better educate students about world dress, couture fashion, functional design, ready-to-wear, and textile arts.  We continue to collect items that exemplify these goals and occasionally we receive pieces that not only encapsulate fashion’s reach but also commemorate the makers and the rich lives and relationships that grew from time spent at Cornell.  This wedding ensemble is one such instance.  The donor, Norman C. Scheaffer ’65, wrote and shared the piece below in homage to his late wife, Barbara Anne Conway ’64.

The garment was created by Barbara Anne Conway (BS HE, 1964) during the late Fall term of her senior year in preparation for her wedding to Norman Charles Scheaffer (BS ChemE, 1965). The wedding was planned for Cornell’s 1964 Intersession. Barbara was a Textiles and Clothing major and the garment was probably developed from a contemporaneous paper dress pattern.  The look of the simple jacket and straight skirt was very much Jacqueline Kennedy.

The garment is not the classic white of most wedding outfits of the time. A mid-winter wedding in Ithaca was likely to be white enough for Barbara without adding a white wedding suit to the scene. In addition, she probably hoped that her soft pink creation would serve her after the wedding as a suit for other special occasions. Instead, Barbara acknowledged the winter season with the white fur accessories of muff and pillbox hat shown in the accompanying photograph. For the wedding, the muff was accented with pink sweetheart roses.

As it turned out, the garment was worn only twice…once for her wedding announcement photograph and once for the wedding itself. After the wedding, the jacket and skirt were carefully folded and stored away with the muff and hat. Except for the tulle veil that has grown brittle with age, the ensemble is in excellent condition and the pink is unfaded by the passage of 58 years.

After graduation, Barbara worked for the New York State Extension Service out of Martha Van until her husband finished his Masters degree. During that period she had several opportunities to explore the Clothing Collection of that time and become familiar with the construction of some of its older garments. When it came time to leave Cornell in 1967, Barb regretted the attendant loss of her ready access to the Collection.

Over the next five decades, Barbara continued to produce tailored garments for her family, and explored the world of fiber arts in the areas of knitting, weaving, and quilting.Quilting became her main means of creative expression and she was gratified to have two of her projects win First Premium Blue Ribbons at the 2011 Northwest Washington Fair.

Barbara passed away on November 2, 2020 after a short but courageous battle with ALS. Like all dedicated quilters, she left a few unfinished projects that will be brought to completion by friends that shared her enthusiasm and respected her talent.