Wedding Dresses Take On The West
The cutting edge in western style wedding dress, like that in this spring's ready-to-wear clothes, are styles that are sophisticated, feminine and shapely. ''The trend up to this year was tight at the waist and very full skirts and puffy sleeves,'' said Monica Hickey, bridal director at Henri Bendel's, the New York specialty store considered a leader in couture bridal fashion. ''The trend this year is strongly toward the body, slimmer, in more sensuous fabrics.''
As more and more women marry later, say retailers, more and more stores are seeing customers who have already established their own sense of style and who want high-fashion, eveningwear-like western style wedding dress. At Bergdorf Goodman, the elegant Manhattan specialty store across from Bendel's, the trend is evident in the enormous popularity of ''advanced'' designers like Yumi Katsura, a Japanese couturier noted for very body-conscious gowns. The bestselling designs at Neiman-Marcus, where fitting rooms are reportedly packed, exemplify the new look: a sheath of pure silk with a straight-across bateau neckline, a lace torso, and a long train. In place of yesterday's organza and chiffon, today's gowns are pure silk and silk taffeta. ''The biggest change has been the return to natural fibers,'' says Frank Masandrea, a ready-to-wear designer who also has a sophisticated bridal line. ''For a while there were mostly organzas and satin polyesters but now we use only pure silk taffeta, silk doupioni and silk satin. Everything is pure silk and the girls seem to understand it.'' ''They like that China silk and we use a lightweight silk satin that fits rather slinky,'' says Priscilla Kidder of Priscilla of Boston, whose company has dressed numerous presidential daughters. Suky Rosan, whose Philadelphia salon caters to Main Line society brides doesn't hesitate. ''Pure silk and lace'' is how she sums it up. Decolletage in varying degrees seems to go hand-in-hand with this year's sensuous styles. Today's brides ''want to be sexy not so much now as two years ago,'' says Kidder. ''I suppose they want a sexy look but they (also) want bateau necklines. I couldn't give them away two years ago.'' Bendel's bride is more daring. ''We do a lot of things that are high in the front and bare in the back,'' says Hickey. ''The back is the focal point with us. Masandrea achieves a bare look with nude linen while Andrew Kovac, who designs a high-fashion line for Bridal Couture, is doing well with jackets that provide cover during the religious ceremony and can be removed to reveal a sexy gown at the reception. Removable jackets also are used by Ron Lovece, another innovative high-fashion designer. |