The Influence of Royal Weddings on Bridal Fashion in the Nineteenth Century

The Influence of Royal Weddings on Bridal Fashion in the Nineteenth Century

• Background:

Weddings may be one of the most festive social occasions. The bridal dress was a chance to show off one’s best dress and finest accessories. The first possible references of wedding apparel came from the Hellenistic period of Greece. However, there was no real consideration of element, fabric, color, or style. It was given meaning by the use of accessories, such as flowers and metal tiaras.

Long before the early 19th century, the idea of ceremony-specific clothing, particularly for a one-time event, was beyond the financial means of the vast majority of the population. People tended to wear their most fashionable garments, with no real consideration of one-time use or symbolism of color or style.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, bridal fashion has undergone a process of revision and transformation. There were still no hard and fast rules as to how wedding dresses should be look. For a while, cream, silver, yellow were popular in the early century. Dark colors were practical for a bride from the middle and lower classes. Since the wedding of Queen Victoria in 1840, the white wedding had been growing in popularity. Businesses began to offer special bridal goods and services.

As of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, global standards followed the Western tradition of a bride dressed in white or off-white, with a head-covering, whether a veil or head-piece, and carrying flowers or some other object. The bride would be recognized by her dress, and it could be regarded as bad luck to be married in anything but white.

How did we get there? How has bridal fashion develop...

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...nspired by medieval Italy. It then became a popular trend for brides to copy. The dress was also loose on waist and hip, and have comfortable short sleeves. It did not have any undergarments for support.

• Conclusion

The 19th century was a transition for wedding dress. There were many influential events happened over the century. Brides’ preferences for their wedding dresses changed as industrial-made fabrics became cheaper, dyes became brighter, and laundering became less arduous. However, the most significant impact was royal weddings. Magazines were willing to provide advice and illustrations. The development of photography also provided an opportunity to capture the royal weddings in the middle of the 19th century. The influence of the royal weddings can not only be seen in the color of the dress, but also in the whole fashion trend.