People didn't just wear wedding dresses in the past. They also

In this profound reflection, Susanna Kearsley speaks of the hidden truths beneath beauty, using the image of wedding dresses and the humble cotton shifts worn beneath them as a metaphor for history and human experience. She reminds us that while the world often celebrates the glamorous and visible, it is the unseen foundations — plain, unadorned, and easily forgotten — that make the splendor possible. A wedding dress may shine with lace and silk, but without the shift beneath, it would be incomplete, uncomfortable, and even unwearable. So too with history and life: what lies beneath the surface matters as much, if not more, than what is displayed.

Her words also speak to the responsibility of storytelling and remembrance. When museums showcase only the ornate gown without acknowledging the simple garment beneath, they tell a partial truth, leaving the full story obscured. This mirrors the way societies often remember kings, queens, and heroes while forgetting the laborers, servants, and common people whose toil built the very foundations of greatness. The shift represents the everyday humanity that is so easily erased when history is polished for display. To ignore it is to distort the narrative and dishonor those who lived unseen.

Throughout history, this pattern repeats. Consider the magnificent palaces of Versailles, whose glittering halls dazzled the world. Yet behind those walls worked countless men and women — cooks, cleaners, stable hands — whose names were never recorded, though their efforts sustained the glory of kings. Without their “cotton shifts,” the beauty of the court would have collapsed. Susanna’s metaphor reminds us that true understanding requires acknowledging both the visible and the invisible, the celebrated and the forgotten.

This teaching also resonates on a personal level. In our own lives, people often show the world their “wedding dress” — the polished exterior of success, happiness, and grace — while hiding the plain shifts of struggle, sacrifice, and vulnerability beneath. To truly know someone is to see both layers, to honor not only their triumphs but also the unseen battles that made those triumphs possible. Just as a museum exhibit without the shift is incomplete, so too are our relationships when we acknowledge only the surface.

Thus, Susanna’s reflection is a call to wholeness and honesty. Whether we are historians, storytellers, or simply witnesses to one another’s lives, we must remember the hidden truths that lie beneath the glittering façade. A wedding dress alone is beautiful, but when displayed alongside the shift, it becomes authentic, a testament to the full complexity of human experience. In this way, her words teach future generations to honor not just the visible symbols of history, but also the quiet, humble realities that sustain them — for without those, no true story can ever be told.