A wedding dress is a childhood dream for many young girls. This dream changes with time due to new fashions and trends in the world fashion industry. But the idea of wearing a gorgeous wedding dress remains the same. It is the most memorable day of a girl’s life, and she will give the utmost prominence to her wedding dress. The wedding dress will reflect the bride’s personality. This was a measure in the olden days of one’s wealth and social status even though this idea has erased with modern ideologies. Over the years, brides have worn every shape, fit and colour gown. However, the Western wedding dress has evolved over the last 200 years at a pace. We will discuss the fascinating history of the evolution of the wedding dress.
It is true that brides now a day gives prominence to white when it comes to choosing their bridal gown. Nonetheless, you will be surprised to find out that brides did not always wear white in history. In the Nineteenth century, the “white” material was unmanageable to clean by hand. Therefore, only the wealthy class could afford to wear white because of maintainability issues. In the 1840 Queen Victoria wore a great white wedding dress on her marriage to her cousin Prince Albert. This is considered the seminal white-wearing occasion. She also broke the status quo at her wedding, when she astounded lacy, ivory-coloured silk satin. She also wore a beautiful orange blossom wreath and did not wear her crown.
The white-dress trend became uncommon in the course of the Great Depression when times were hard, and it was challenging for most people to devote money on a gown they would never wear again. As an alternative, women wore what they considered their best dress. Decades ago, the bride would naturally wear her most beautiful attire to the ceremonial, even if it was a dark colour.
In many Asian countries, many brides endure to wear the colour red on their wedding day. Red was a prevalent selection in that part of the world as they believe it represents good luck, romance and happiness. A small number of colours were avoided, such as green since the same was then deliberated to be inauspicious. The colour blue was a popular range as it represented purity, piety and Virgin Mary, not to be forgotten that the colour effortlessly hid stains and imperfections. The same could be worn again and again.
In the second half of the Twentieth century, after an economic flourishing, the colour white developed to be a popular colour, as evidenced by the weddings of Princess Diana, Grace Kelly and other significant ladies who married during this time of the century. White eventually received the title as “the most fitting hue” for a bride. Women’s magazines worded the colour as goodness, purity and simplicity.
The mid-calf length was encouraged by the working women force afterwards World War II and Fashion personalities like Audrey Hepburn wore the same in 1954 and looked astonishing. The 1960s led women to abandon modesty yet again. In the 1960s mini dresses and knee-high boots were introduced, and the same was shown to the world by Audrey Hepburn a decade later, during her second marriage. In the 1970s brides changed their styles to loose, velvet empire-waisted dresses.
It was the 1980s that brought out the princess in many brides. A tiara put onto the head and full skirts gathered at the waistline made every bride look like a princess. In the 1990s the fitted sheath dresses were standard and sleeves disappeared.
White remains THE colour for all brides around the world representing purity and fidelity. In the present day, brides can cherry-pick from millions of colours, styles and fabrics for their most important day. Although shape and style vary significantly from bride to bride, the colour white and shades of white still prevalent.
Unlike the many trends and traditions tied to wedding gowns, for most of history, the groom’s only necessity has been to dress in a way that matches the bride’s gown. Lucky him!
