Wedding Garters c. 1936

Curator: Ella Josephine Sterling created this piece, entitled "Wedding Garters," around 1936, using watercolor and drawing techniques. It is clearly within the decorative art tradition. What strikes you initially about it? Editor: The linear composition immediately stands out. It's starkly elongated, almost like an architectural plan for something deceptively intimate. The restrained palette reinforces a feeling of delicacy but also almost… distance. Curator: Indeed. The garter itself is laden with meaning. Traditionally, it’s a symbol of good luck and is often playfully tossed during wedding celebrations, representing the sharing of good fortune with the unmarried male guests. Sterling chooses to present it with academic formality. Editor: It is fascinating that a ritual object gets turned into a graphic exercise. Look at the tonal variations, how the pink highlights sculpt form with just a little wash over flat colors! Semiotically, we can interpret it by analyzing this stark juxtaposition: functional object becomes flat graphic, ritual of seduction becomes an academic still-life. Curator: Exactly, a seeming paradox: a decorative and sensual object imbued with hope for fertility—visualized using the cool distance of decorative formalism. The flowers embroidered along the band, tiny rosebuds intermixed with perhaps orange blossoms… they are familiar emblems of love, beauty, and the blossoming of a new life, reinforcing the garter's symbolism. These botanical choices, although subtle, connect the piece to a history of symbolic representation in wedding traditions across cultures. Editor: The craftsmanship on display suggests the influence of Art Deco, stripping ornamentation to reveal geometry as an act of refinement. Even the textures on the material come to life: woven vs smooth. Sterling reduces erotic promise to simple composition in brown and blush hues—analyzing desire instead of portraying it outright! Curator: The wedding garter has always signified a pivotal, if sometimes fraught, transition. This piece reflects that ambivalence. A tension exists between innocence, the hope for good fortune, and a wink to the private sensuality awaiting the couple, post ceremony. It becomes more than just lingerie, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely, a potent symbol presented as both document and specimen! Analyzing this wedding garment as a pattern of stripes, highlights, colors and botanical accents lets you think beyond conventions of desire. Curator: I leave with a more thoughtful consideration of these intimate objects—charged as they are with social and personal expectation. Editor: And I depart with renewed respect for subtle compositions and objects which, seemingly humble, trigger waves of emotions, cultural codes, and more!