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Wedding dress

Dress worn by a bride during the wedding ceremony

Wedding dress

Dress worn by a bride during the wedding ceremony

A white wedding dress, 2024

A wedding dress or bridal gown is the dress worn by the bride during a wedding ceremony. The color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants. Wedding dresses hold a significant place in fashion, symbolizing personal expression, and cultural traditions and societal values. In Western culture, the wedding dress is most commonly white, a fashion made popular by Queen Victoria when she married in 1840. In Eastern cultures, brides often choose red to symbolize auspiciousness. These wedding dresses often represent a blend of heritage and contemporary trends, making them a pivotal aspect of bridal fashion and a reflection of evolving style in society.

Fashion

Wedding dress fashion has evolved significantly, shaped by shifts in aesthetic preferences, technological advancements, and broader cultural trends. Historically, bridal attire featured elaborate designs with structured silhouettes and intricate detailing, reflecting the prevailing styles of their time. In more recent decades, minimalist and modern designs have gained popularity, emphasizing simplicity and personal expression. Wedding dresses continue to adapt to contemporary fashion trends while retaining elements of tradition, offering a wide range of styles that allow brides to express their individuality.

21st century

In the early 21st century, many wedding dresses were sleeveless and strapless. Other brides preferred styles with sleeves, higher necklines, and covered backs.

The latest wedding dress designs, as of 2024, feature drop-waist silhouettes, convertible gowns, intricate crystal embellishments, tulle, and gowns that display vintage charm.

History

In Western cultures, white wedding gowns have symbolized purity and grace since the 19th century, whereas Eastern cultures often feature elaborate, colorful garments imbued with symbolic meanings unique to each region.

Western culture

Wedding dress from 1891. Until the late 1960s wedding dresses reflected the styles of the day; since then they have often been based on Victorian styles.

Weddings performed during and immediately following the Middle Ages were often more than a personal union between two individuals. They frequently symbolized a union between families, businesses, or even nations. These ceremonies were driven more by political considerations than romantic love, particularly among the nobility and the higher social classes. Brides were expected to dress in a way that reflected the status of their families, representing more than just themselves during the ceremony. Brides from wealthy families often wore rich colors and exclusive fabrics, wearing bold colors and layers of furs, velvet, and silk. The attire of the bride was a testament to the wealth and social standing of her family. Brides from lower social strata wore their best church dress on their wedding day. The amount and the price of material a wedding dress contained was a direct reflection of the bride's social standing and indicated the extent of the family's wealth to wedding guests. More recently, due to the exorbitant price of a dress second hand shops often carry wedding dresses. At which point, a tailor can make the necessary alterations for the bride.

Color

A blue wedding dress from 1840

The first documented instance of a royal bride wearing a white wedding dress was that of Philippa of England. She wore a tunic with a cloak in white silk bordered with squirrel and ermine in 1406, when she married Eric of Pomerania. Similarly, Mary, Queen of Scots, wore a white wedding dress in 1559 when she married her first husband, Francis, the Dauphin of France, because it was her favorite color, although white was then the color of mourning for French queens.

This was not a widespread trend, however: prior to the Victorian era, a bride was married in any color, black being popular in Finland.

White became a popular option in 1840, after the marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, when Victoria wore a white gown trimmed with Honiton lace. Illustrations of the wedding were widely published, and many brides opted for white in accordance with the Queen's choice. Although white was later assumed to symbolize virginity, it was originally blue that represented purity, piety, and fidelity, and was associated with the Virgin Mary.

Despite the rise in popularity of white wedding dresses, brides continued to follow contemporary fashion trends. In the early 1900s, clothing included a lot of decorations, such as lace or frills. This was also adopted in wedding dresses, where decorative frills and lace were common. For example, in the 1920s, they were typically short in the front with a longer train in the back and were worn with cloche-style wedding veils. This tendency to follow current fashions continued until the late 1960s, when it became popular to revert to long, full-skirted designs reminiscent of the Victorian era.

Since the mid-20th century, white has been the dominant color for Western wedding dresses, though "wedding white" includes shades such as eggshell, ecru, and ivory. However, white is not the universal color of wedding dresses.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the color white is used as a symbol of purity, innocence, and cleanliness, particularly in religious ceremonies, including weddings. For weddings in the temple, white clothing is also worn by all participants during the ceremony, both men and women, to symbolize unity and equality before God. The brides are instructed to wear white dresses that are modest in design and fabric and free of elaborate decoration.

Eastern culture

Traditionally, a Kurdish first-time bride would wear a red dress for her wedding to symbolize the postcoital bleeding she will experience when she loses her virginity while a Kurdish bride who used to be married before would wear pink. Many Kurds associate red wedding dresses with impoverished Kurdish rural society and it is no longer commonly worn.

In India, brides wear a wedding sari. These are usually red with golden brocade, as red is the color associated with married women. Other colors appear in some regions and castes, like red-white checkering in Tamil Nadu. Wedding saris are traditionally woven from silk, although other materials are also gaining popularity.

References

References

  1. Brennan, Summer. (2017-09-27). "A Natural History of the Wedding Dress".
  2. Chrisman-Campbell, Kimberly. (2020). "The way we wed: a global history of wedding fashion". Running Press.
  3. (16 May 2020). "The Evolution of Bridal Style Through the Years". [[Elle (magazine).
  4. Wax, Shelby. (2024-04-09). "The Biggest Wedding Dress Trends From New York Bridal Fashion Week".
  5. Currie, Dawn H.. (1993-10-01). ""Here Comes the Bride": The Making of a "Modern Traditional" Wedding in Western Culture". Journal of Comparative Family Studies.
  6. (18 April 2024). "How to Resell Your Wedding Dress, According to the Experts".
  7. (3 March 2014). "Wedding white doesn't mean what you think it means".
  8. "The History of Matrimony".
  9. (24 April 2011). "Mary, Queen of Scots' first wedding day".
  10. (23 August 2009). "Elizabeth I Facts".
  11. Pelo, June. "Old Marriage Customs in Finland".
  12. "Royal Weddings 1840-1947".
  13. Ashliman, DL. (2004). "Folk and Fairy Tales: A Handbook–Greenwood Folklore Handbooks". ABC-CLIO.
  14. Stewart, Jude. (14 February 2011). "The Bride Wore Chartreuse: Why (Most) Wedding Dresses are White".
  15. "Traditional Mexican dress · V&A".
  16. "Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple". [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].
  17. "Lesson 5: Learning from the Lord through Symbols". [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].
  18. (February 2007). "Why Symbols?". [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].
  19. "27. Temple Ordinances for the Living". [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].
  20. (1996). "Kurdish Culture and Identity". Bloomsbury Academic.
  21. (November 2007). "They Lived to Tell the Tale". Lyons Press.
  22. (1995). "Journey Through Kurdistan". Texas Memorial Museum.
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