A potted history of the wedding dress

Who wore the first one? And were they always white? Everything you need to know about the wedding dress explained…

Whether you opt for a dramatic Ralph & Russo-style gown, a frothy Giambattista Valli confection or borrow a vintage treasure from your grandmother in the mode of Princess Beatrice, for most, the wedding dress is the most important (and expensive) item of clothing they will ever own.

And, while the wedding dress doesn’t escape the influence of the fads and fashions of each era, the modern bridal gown has become subject to a few traditional constants. Its colour, for example, rarely strays too far beyond the boundaries of ivory, oyster or champagne. It tends to be floor length and often features delicate embellishments, fine lace, ornate beading or similar.

But how did Western culture get to a place where it is the norm to spend thousands on an elaborate gown destined to be worn for just a few hours? Like most ephemera related to the wedding industry, the bridal gown defies logic but, unlike £1,000 chocolate fountains and flower walls destined to wilt before the speeches have begun, the wedding dress has a long and rich history.

As with many things that have become acceptable, if aspirational, practices among the masses, the white wedding dress as we know it today originated with royalty. The first documented instance of a white wedding gown was at the marriage of Philippa of England - who wore a white silk cloak bordered with squirrel and ermine fur - when she married Eric of Pomerania in 1406. Mary Queen of Scots also chose white, her favourite colour, for her marriage to the Dauphin of France in 1559 but the colour did not become commonplace until much later.

Just as she ushered in the wearing of black to funerals, it was the white wedding gown worn by Queen Victoria for her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840 that made it the colour of choice for brides from then on. Of course, as with most things Queen Victoria did, her wedding gown was far more than just a fashion statement. Rather than wear a design crafted in the more popular Brussels lace, Victoria’s dress was fashioned from East London silk with a flounce made from Honiton lace, a decision made to revive the flagging industry in Devon with great effect.

A Charles Frederick Worth bridal gown. Credit: St Edmundsbury Borough Council/Creative Commons

In fact it was the choice of this lace that influenced the colour. While modern tradition will have you believe white is the colour of purity - and thus not suitable for second marriages - Victoria’s dress was white largely because it was the shade that would best showcase the delicacy of the lace. One of her most treasured possessions, Victoria wore the lace flounce again at the weddings of her eldest daughter, Victoria, in 1858 and the future George V in 1893. Queen Victoria’s veil also made frequent reappearances at family christenings, for her Diamond Jubilee portrait and she even requested to be buried wearing it.

Queen Victoria did, however, notes biographer Julia Baird, request that no-one other than her bridesmaids wear white, thus instituting both a royal tradition of bridesmaids in white gowns (see Pippa Middleton) and possibly the most sacred dictate of wedding dress code etiquette. Victoria was also a proponent of that flashiest of bridal choices: an outfit change. An increasingly common choice for the modern bride, Victoria swapped her heavy bridal gown for a white swansdown dress and bonnet for the reception. However, hers was not a choice dictated by a wish to dance more freely into the evening: Victoria left her wedding reception at 4pm and headed straight to Windsor Castle for a honeymoon lasting just two days.

An official portrait from the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton

And, while her honeymoon choices may not fit with modern preferences, the dress itself, with its corseted top and full skirt, has stood the test of time. To look at Queen Victoria’s gown today is to see that, in their most traditional sense, wedding dresses in the Western world have barely changed over the past 180 years. Which isn’t to say, of course, that each new generation and decade hasn’t stamped its own unique style on the wedding gown.

The Industrial Revolution, and the new techniques and machines for clothing production it brought with it, made the creation of intricate dresses both easier and cheaper - putting the dream of owning a Victoria-style wedding gown to be worn for just one day within reach of wealthier classes for the first time. As such, women began turning to the designers of the day, such as Charles Frederick Worth and Paul Poiret, and department stores like Liberty & Co for their wedding dresses. The gowns themselves, in turn, began following the latest fashions.

Throughout the late 19th Century the wedding dress followed the Victorian fashion for high neck lines, long sleeves and full floor-length skirts, often paired with an elaborate Gibson Girl hairstyle. However, by 1910, a floatier, empire-waisted gown with mid-length sleeves and a cape veil became popular and, inevitably, eventually gave way to the shorter, highly decorated Flapper-esque dresses of the Roaring Twenties.
​
However, the boom time of the 1950s and the growing middle classes both in the US and Europe put the wedding dress firmly back on the map as a must-have for brides. Inspired by Hollywood stars, such as Elizabeth Taylor, and the Norman Hartnell dress worn by Queen Elizabeth II when she married in 1947, satin, lace, embroidery and beading became the order of the day. The sweetheart neckline, as seen on Grace Kelly, found popularity in this era while many wedding gowns also took their cues from Dior’s New Look.

The ‘60s and ‘70s saw the adoption of looser silhouettes, shorter hemlines and a generally less formal design - in line with the Bohemian spirit of young people at the time - while, in the 1980s, anyone who was anyone looked directly to Princess Diana, and her voluminous David Emanuel gown, for inspiration.

From the 1990s to today, the choice of wedding gown style has grown in tandem with the vast variety of weddings a modern couple may have. As fewer and fewer couples opt for a traditional church wedding, so the necessity for modest, formal gowns has diminished. A bride getting married on a beach in the Caribbean, for example, may choose a light, spaghetti-strapped style, while one tying the knot in a grand country house will often go for the now hugely popular fishtail or trumpet silhouettes.

As concerns about sustainability within the fashion industry have grown so the practice of buying a new gown for a single day has been brought into question. As a result brides are increasingly turning to vintage or second-hand stores in search of their dress (the wedding dress resale market is expected to top $50 million by 2024) while the practice of altering a gown worn by a mother, grandmother or aunt is also becoming increasingly common. In fact, Princess Beatrice’s choice to wear a customised Norman Hartnell evening dress belonging to Queen Elizabeth II for her wedding in July 2020 may be enough to cement this as the way forward for modern brides. As history shows, where the royals go the rest are sure to follow.

---

the evolution of paris fashion week

Read more

a beginner's guide to fashion terminology

Read more