Western Style Lends A Hand To Weddings
The big news in western wedding idea is the surprising popularity of pale pink and of white over ivory. ''It used to be one hundred percent ivory. Now it's one hundred percent white,'' says Hickey, whose view is shared by staff at Neiman-Marcus. Bergdorf Goodman recently featured Masandrea's pink gowns in their windows. Rosan is doing well with pinks from Priscilla of Boston. In sheaths and more traditional bouffant styles, Kidder says Victorian and Edwardian antique lace is in.
''What they really want is something quite simple but (with) a little fashion,'' concludes Kidder. ''Like interesting sleeves and maybe interesting hemlines.'' Yumi Katsura's spring line features everything from a bizarre gown of ribbon embroidered on organdy with pointy puff sleeves and a weird cocoon at the hip to less adventurous creations of organdy and lace beaded with pearls that come with a detachable train. All in all , as western wedding idea become simpler, details like trains become more important. Trains are back in 1986, and detachable trains that allow the gown to be worn on other occasions are especially prominent. Rosan is selling ''a lot of sheaths with trains attached.'' Kovac of Bridal Couture says ''if they're having a train, they want a long one'' while Kidder has gotten ''a lot of calls for long trains which means they're going to have formal weddings, doesn't it?'' This look, with ever widening skirt, continued well into the 1950s when satin began to give way to stiffer fabrics - taffeta, faille, organdy. The most demure wedding gowns of the century were worn at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s. Of stiff, opaque fabrics, these dresses featured an almost childish silhouette, with high or no waistline, puffed sleeves and occasional eyelet embroidery or small, sweet ruffles. The counter-culture popularized wearing peasant blouses, Mexican wedding dresses or antique clothing. It also encouraged men to dress more individually, which resulted in lamentable raspberry and sky-blue formal suits and ruffled shirts. The 1980s taste for romantic, opulent dresses was firmly established in July 1981 with the marriage of the prince and princess of Wales. The wedding veil of the Napoleonic era was at first short and small but veils grew as the century progressed. By the 1930s, floral, lace or bead-embroidered silk headpieces began to take the form of tiaras. It is remarkable that brides continue to wear white, Caroline Milbank wrote in Connoisseur, since virtually no other custom of the etiquette of dress is any longer observed. Brides' dresses may be personalized in terms of style but almost never in terms of color. Even the second and third time around, today's brides wear white. |