A history of alternative wedding dresses, from minis to black dresses

If the thought of having to wear a traditional wedding dress scares you, you’re not alone. Increasingly, women are looking for an alternative and more personalized approach to what to wear on their big day.

The notion of an all-white, one-time wear dress is touted as an age-old tradition that every bride should follow, but in reality, it’s something of a modern creation.

Scroll through the gallery above to see alternative wedding dress ideas.

Until the mid-1800s, all brides, including those at the top of the social ladder, got married in the best dress they already owned. If for some reason she had a dress made for the occasion, it was understood by all that it would be worn again.

For this reason, women opted for colors and patterns that allowed maximum use. White was too impractical to be a serious option.

The story of a white marriage

The woman who bucked this trend was Queen Victoria, who is credited with inventing the concept of white marriage. For her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840, she objected to wearing silver or gold lamé, as was the fashion at the time, and wore instead a white silk dress from Spitalfields, adorned with a deep ruffle of white Honiton lace.

As she chose her dress and wrote about how much she loved it (so much so that when she died in 1901 she was buried with the veil), the materials weren’t chosen for aesthetics, but rather to highlight British decline. textile industry.

As with all things royal, Queen Victoria’s dress has sparked a thousand imitators. As the Industrial Revolution brought down the cost of fabric, women were able to have dresses made to measure for special occasions, and what better event than a wedding? It also allowed women to forgo practicality and think about wearing fashionable white instead.

Lo and behold, a new trend has begun.

Today’s modern wedding dresses

Fast forward to today, and thanks to the pandemic that has canceled weddings for over a year, it has sent the price of weddings through the roof, with the average wedding in the US costing $28,000. .

The pandemic has also shifted attitudes away from following social expectations towards greater authenticity. This has led to an increase in the number of brides looking to rent out their dress, or give it up altogether and get married in a dress that can be worn again.

The all-white wedding dress is no longer a must-have as women are looking for something more personal instead. Pinterest, for example, reported an 85% increase in searches for “black wedding dress” year over year as brides step above the norm. Chic and sophisticated, black is a stylish alternative and has high profile admirers.

Sarah Jessica Parker wore a black ball gown by Morgane Le Fey for her wedding to Matthew Broderick in 1997, while actress Chloe Sevigny wore a black mini dress and white veil for her 2020 ceremony with gallery director Sinisa Mackovic.

Inspiration for alternative ideas

Brides looking for inspiration on alternative colors to The Dress need only look around the world and its many different traditions.

In the Zhou dynasty in China, 1050 BC, for example, the bride and groom were married in black, and in the Han era (which ended in 220 AD) the dress code operated according to the seasons, so brides wore green for a spring wedding, red for summer, yellow for fall, and black for winter. The idea of ​​wearing red proved popular and has survived to this day in China, for its connection to success, honor and loyalty.

Hindu brides also wear red, as it is considered the most sacred color, while in Europe during the Middle Ages, brides wore green, to symbolize the fertility of spring.

In ancient Rome, meanwhile, brides wore a yellow veil or head covering, to represent the flame of light she brought to her husband’s life. In Imperial Korea, white was the color of mourning, so brides wore yellow, red, and green dresses instead.

However, wearing an unconventional color has been embraced by many famous women over the years.

When Wallis Simpson married Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, in 1937, the bride wore blue, and when Elizabeth Taylor married Eddie Fisher – her fourth marriage – she wore a knee-length olive green dress.

Marilyn Monroe wore a chocolate brown two-piece suit with rhinestone buttons and a white mink collar when she married baseball star Joe DiMaggio in 1954.

In a clever mix of ideas, Gwen Stefani’s wedding to Gavin Rossdale in 2002 saw the singer wear a white dress custom-made by John Galliano for Dior. To better reflect her rock n’ roll spirit, Galliano tinted the lower half of the dress pink.

Dita Von Teese, meanwhile, pulled out all the stops for her 2005 wedding to Marilyn Manson. She commissioned Vivienne Westwood to design her dress, and Westwood crafted a lavish, full-skirted ruched dress in imperial purple silk.

Updated: May 27, 2022, 05:22