In the vast majority of modern countries, it is customary to dress up in a white dress for a wedding. Before going down the aisle with her betrothed, every bride spends a long time choosing this very white dress - wedding salons are ready to provide a lot of solutions in different styles. Even more than that: there is wedding fashion, the current styles change every year.
Why is this so, where did this tradition come from? Why should a dress be white, while other colors are viewed very skeptically? Surely inquisitive people have asked this question at least once.
White color is not an axiom
Fashionable wedding dress
Today, this tradition is often abandoned - wedding dresses are chosen in multi-colored, beige, and blue shades.
Progressive brides are not afraid of judgment, remain aloof from prejudice, and can even choose a silver or black outfit. Sometimes it really is beautiful, looks unusual and interesting. Moreover, white color is not universal for all occasions and every nationality. Even today, many people prefer to choose other solutions without thinking about the generally accepted trends. Interesting fact: it is not customary for a number of peoples to use a white dress for a marriage ceremony.
In India, brides wear red, and in Japan, the girl wears two outfits at once, white and red. And many African and Asian peoples prefer to choose national costumes for weddings. In addition, the tradition of wearing white strengthened only in the 19th century, and originated 1-2 centuries earlier. This is a relatively recent trend, its occurrence is usually associated with one of the two cases when European queens began to choose this color for their wedding dresses.
Interesting: How was the content of chemical elements in the Earth calculated?
Types of white bridesmaid dresses
White wedding dress photo.
Due to the fact that white is an unsurpassed classic, absolutely all designers work with it. This gives you a truly wide choice.
In addition, white is good because it suits any style and shape. A large assortment is presented both in wedding salons and in online stores. So the choice is extensive and sometimes it makes you wonder which option will be the best.
Shades
Surprisingly, white comes in several different shades. All of them are not classics, but they are often used by those young ladies who want to make their image more original and creative.
- champagne;
- beige;
- ivory.
All of the above tones are soft, creamy and pastel options. They are ideal for girls who are getting married for the first time or are pregnant. The colors are not too provocative, which allows them to be used for a delicate bridal look.
This is interesting: How to choose the right wedding dress in the Greek style
Styles
The variety of styles sometimes forces brides to choose this particular option. Choose several different formats for yourself, try them on and determine the one that suits you best.
- Long sleeves are a real squeak of modern fashion. Almost all designers have made options that have long sleeves. At the same time, they are all surprisingly diverse. For some it is made of guipure, for some the main one will be a satin insert, and for others it will be preferable to choose a synthetic material. In any case, the sleeve should only match the dress itself, the rest is not so important.
- Mermaid or godet is the sexiest wedding dress option. However, it is suitable only for those young ladies who have ideal shapes and body contours. The mermaid fits tightly to the silhouette, thereby emphasizing existing imperfections. If the figure is ideal, then you will get a sexy image in which you will be able to capture only the charms, showing them from an advantageous angle.
- Princess - a few years ago this style was considered the most popular. Currently, fewer and fewer brides are choosing it. However, this did not make it lose its charm. In cartoons and fairy tales you can find a wonderful princess who is dressed in a fluffy dress with a voluminous skirt. This is exactly what we are talking about in this version. The dress is best suited for petite girls. Busty beauties should avoid this type of dress.
- In short, democratic wedding fashion suggests moving away from traditional ideas about a wedding. From now on, short models that are just above the knee or vice versa just below are also in fashion. A girl in a dress always looks flirty and intriguing. Often a young lady chooses an original skirt in the shape of a bell or sun. In this case, it is possible to create a more festive image.
Color combinations
You can look stylish and fashionable at your own wedding by combining two colors. Add bright and rich tones to the basic white option. As a result, you may end up with a more original image.
- With red is a stylish combination in which the bride adds red decorative elements to the snow-white version of the wedding dress. Red is suitable for brunettes. This is the color that looks quite catchy and harmonious on them. Red has long been added to clothing, believing that this color brings financial well-being.
- You can look incredibly stylish and modest with black additional decorative elements. Such elements can be ribbons or waist bows. Black does not set off the solemnity of a white dress, so it can be safely used for wedding ceremonies.
- Girlish pink color can help emphasize the romance and tenderness of the bride herself. At the same time, a delicate pastel pink is used, which is subtly different from the snow-white shade. This combination is ideal for blue-eyed blondes.
This is interesting: Choosing a wedding dress for a wedding together
Queens and wedding dress
Crowned lady in a wedding dress
Anne of Austria is a Spanish princess who chose a white dress for her wedding with the King of France. The marriage took place in 1615. Her image impressed those around her so much that later all wealthy ladies began to imitate her, choosing this color for their wedding dress. And then this fashion began to actively spread, the princess began to be imitated in other European countries, and then in Russia. Gradually this tradition passed from the upper strata of society to everyone else.
There is a second option, another answer to this riddle. In the second case, the fashion for white wedding dresses is attributed to Queen Victoria, who ruled England - she married Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. The woman thought that the traditional look with silver brocade would not suit her, and opted for a white dress, which was very new. After all, silver color was traditional at the weddings of the ruling persons of this country. She put on a white satin dress, each sleeve of which took up to half a meter of material just for decoration. This material was hand-woven lace, which was prepared for six months by a whole village of craftswomen, and after the wedding the outfit was destroyed so that no one would try to copy it.
White wedding dress fabrics
The beauty of a wedding dress is largely determined by the material. When sewing, several fabric options can be used at once. The combination of different textures allows you to get an interesting and original model.
Atlas
A white satin wedding dress looks much more expensive than other options. This material does not need additional decor. The fabric has a gentle glow. Thanks to him, the image becomes both gentle and luxurious.
Velvet
Supporters of original materials should pay attention to the white velvet dress. Previously, this material was popular with royalty. Velvet is combined with frills, sequins and deep cutouts. In recent years, the fashion for velvet has only intensified.
Silk
A white silk wedding dress looks tender and touching. Silk is often chosen by lovers of minimalism, because it does not need additional decoration. Fitted models of silk dresses are especially popular.
Lace
Those who want to look feminine and sophisticated should wear a white lace wedding dress. You can find many successful models in the style of Queen Victoria. Lace adds romance and sexuality to the image. Lace patterns can be either a separate decorative element or a decoration for the entire dress.
Chiffon
A chiffon dress is great for creating an aristocratic look. This airy material can be easily combined with coarser fabrics. Chiffon lends itself well to draping and holds its shape. Thanks to its tactile properties, it is very comfortable to wear.
Wedding dresses at different times
Slavic bride
It is believed that the first wedding dresses began to be used by the ancient Greeks - it was a white peplos, which was decorated with clasps on the shoulders. Brides were not supposed to wear jewelry; these clasps were the only accessories, and they tried to decorate them exquisitely. The richer the bride's family was, the more elaborate these decorations were. There were no fashionable dresses in Rome either - the girl was dressed in tight-fitting clothes, but she had more accessories, the bride had a lot of jewelry. In Rus', brides dressed up in accordance with pagan traditions. They were given a red sundress, which was believed to ward off evil forces with its color. Another option involved a smartly embroidered shirt and a red and blue checkered skirt.
Interesting: Could a woman become a pharaoh? Description, photo and video
The skirt was considered a symbol of engagement - if a girl started wearing it, it meant that she had already been betrothed. Russian women sought to wear red things to weddings until the 18th century, only then the image of a snow-white dress gradually began to take root.
Current shades of white
A pure white wedding dress is a win-win option for a celebration of any format. But recently, other light shades have become increasingly popular. They look no less noble.
The most advantageous color solutions include:
- Champagne is a fashionable shade with a golden sheen. It brings out your skin tone and makes your wedding look warmer. The shade looks beautiful on tanned girls with brown hair.
- The cream is a noble creamy shade, most suitable for girls of autumn color type with warm undertone skin.
- Milk is an excellent option for dark-skinned young ladies.
- Ivory color is considered the most popular among brides. Another name for the shade is ivory. It suits girls of any color type and helps create a truly touching image.
Medieval traditions
In Europe in the Middle Ages, there was no tradition of sewing a separate dress for a wedding - this was not done in the circles of common people. The girl simply chose the most beautiful dress she had and walked down the aisle in it. The dress might not be new, it could just be festive, she could wear it on special occasions both before and after the wedding. Only wealthy families, starting around the 15th century, began to give their daughters away in dresses specially purchased for this purpose.
Accordingly, medieval wedding dresses could be of any color; brides could opt for bright or dark colors; no one chose white. It is worth remembering that the dust and dirt on medieval streets did not contribute to the cleanliness and safety of clothing, and sewing a dress just for one occasion was a waste, even for wealthy families.
A modern take on wedding dresses
Gothic wedding dress
The snow-white dress of the bride, according to modern views, speaks of her purity and symbolizes innocence. In the past, such dresses were worn by “brides of Christ” - girls going to the monastery. And white also symbolizes perfection, a celebration of life. Thus, a white dress is by no means an ancient, but a very beautiful tradition, and whether to follow it is up to each bride to decide for herself. Many follow, because white dresses for brides today are offered in a variety of styles.
Interesting: How is decaffeinated coffee made?
Why is the bride in white?
Is there a celebration in the world more luxurious than a wedding? Is there anyone who has never seen this celebration? Everyone at least once in their life has seen a beautiful bride dressed in a white wedding dress. Well, at least in the movies... But do we all know why the color of the bride’s clothes is white? And why, in general, do people “get married”? And another reason: why did I put the last two questions side by side?
Conduct a small experiment: ask family members, neighbors, friends, colleagues what the white wedding dress and white veil of the bride symbolize. I am sure that in the vast majority of cases you will hear: “This is the color of purity, innocence, purity, chastity.” But this is not at all true!
Since ancient times, among all peoples, white symbolized the Past; it was the color of memory and oblivion, renunciation from the earthly world. That is why among the ancient peoples of the Earth, including the Slavs, white was (and for some it still is) the color of mourning, death, dying. This, by the way, has passed into the Christian tradition - angels and canonized saints are depicted in white robes, which demonstrate not their purity, but their belonging to another world.
So why, according to Russian (and any other Slavic) wedding tradition, was the bride dressed in mourning colors? To understand this, we must remember what genus meant to ancient man. For ancient man, clan (family) meant literally everything: outside the clan, a person had neither rights nor responsibilities; he was not perceived by his fellow tribesmen as an individual, but only as a member of a certain family. And the ancient man himself did not feel like an individual, but exclusively a member of a clan, constantly feeling its powerful support. A girl, becoming a wife, left her clan, “left” it. She “died” for her kind and was “born” again in another. Hence the dressing in mourning, white, clothes.
Associated with these beliefs are the traditions of the bride crying and crying (voices) for the bride. Well, now you can say for yourself why they “voted” for the bride. But why did the bride herself simply have to cry bitterly and a lot? The point here is not at all that the girl was afraid of the unknown, afraid of how she would be received in her new family. The fact is that, leaving her clan and joining someone else’s, she abandoned her patron spirits and placed herself under the protection of her husband’s clan spirits.
With her tears, she seemed to thank her former patrons and apologize to them for the “betrayal”, for the “offense” that she caused them by abandoning them. We all know this picture: the bride, waiting for the groom to arrive, sits, festively dressed, with her bridesmaids in her room. But it wasn't always like this. Among the ancient Slavs, and later, in many Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian villages until the 19th century, the bride, during the arrival of the wedding train, sat on the stove in her everyday clothes and mourned her previous life in the family. She changed into a wedding dress only after the groom arrived. And the ancient meaning of this action is farewell to the hearth, family, and ancestral spirits.
The tradition of covering the girl’s head with a veil is also associated with the “dying” of the bride in her family. I now mean not the transparent cape made of lace or tulle that we are all accustomed to, but an opaque shawl (two uncut scarves) made of dense white or red fabric, which was used to cover the bride in Ancient Rus', making her face completely invisible to others . By the way, if I already mentioned the red veil, then I must also say that the mourning color in ancient times was not only white, but also red, or rather, white-red. Remember the images of a folk wedding dress: after all, it was not pure white, but with red elements. The veil, as I already said, was either white or red (lovers of Indian films, a quick question for you: what color are the clothes of modern Indian brides?).
So why was the bride’s face covered with an opaque thick fabric? Yes, all for the same reason: having agreed to marriage, she “died” for her family and has not yet been “reborn” for another, and, according to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, it was forbidden for the inhabitants of one world to come into contact (even with a glance) with the inhabitants of another world. Why? Because, as our ancestors believed, any contact of our world with the world of the dead led to innumerable misfortunes and even the death of the world of the living. That’s why it was impossible for anyone to see the bride, so as not to bring misfortune to her, her relatives, or themselves.
Over time, the ancient, original meaning of these wedding traditions, like many other folk wedding traditions and rituals, changed somewhat or was completely lost. The meaning of some has been transformed so much that we perceive them as fun or a game at a wedding celebration. But if someone really wants to find out where the custom in Russia comes from of breaking a plate at a wedding or honking loudly from a car when the newlyweds return from the registry office, why the bride is carried into the room through the threshold, and so on, so on, then it’s enough to simply ask the question. For example... why is the bride's wedding dress white.
- Previous: It is a solemn duty to organize a holiday! What should you think about to make the celebration a success?
- Next: Easter traditions
