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Wedding dress history

2019-01-26 14:19:34 257

Wedding dress

A wedding dress or wedding gown is the clothing worn by a bridalduring a wedding ceremony. Color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants. In Western cultures, brides often choose a white wedding dress, which was made popular by QueenVictoriain the 19th century. In eastern cultures, brides often choose red to symbolize auspiciousness.

Margaret Murray-Prior, 1 March 1882. Victorian wedding dress.

Western culture

Weddings performed during and immediately following the Middle Ages were often more than just a union between two people. They could be a union between two families, two businesses or even two countries. Many weddings were more a matter of politics than love, particularly among then nobility and the higher social classes. Brides were therefore expected to dress in a manner that cast their families in the most favorable light and befitted their social status, for they were not representing only themselves during the ceremony. Brides from wealthy families often wore rich colors and exclusive fabrics. It was common to see them wearing bold colors and layers of furs, velvet and silk. Brides dressed in the height of current fashion, with the richest materials money could buy. The poorest of brides wore their best church dress on their wedding day. The amount and the price of material a wedding dress contained was a reflection of the bride's social standing and indicated the extent of the family's wealth to wedding guests.

The woman to the far right is wearing a typical wedding dress from 1929. Until the late 1960s, wedding dresses reflected the styles of the day. From that time onward, wedding dresses have often been based on Victorian styles.

The first documented instance of a princess who wore a white wedding gown for a royal wedding ceremony is that of Philippa of England who wore atunic with a cloak in white silk bordered with grey squirrel and ermine in 1406.; Mary, Queen of Scots wore a white wedding gown in 1559 when she married her first husband, Francis Dauphin of France because it was her favorite color, although white was then the color of mourning for French Queens.

This was not a widespread trend, however: prior to the Victorial era a bride was married in any color, black being especially popular inScandinavia.

White became a popular option in 1840, after the marriage of Queen Victorial to Albert of Saxe-Coburg, whereVictoriawore a white gown to incorporate some lace she prized. The official wedding portrait photograph was widely published, and many brides opted for white in accordance with the Queen's choice.

Even after that, for a period, wedding dresses were adapted to the styles of the day. For example, in the 1920s, they were typically short in the front with a longer train in the back and were worn with cloche -style wedding veils. This tendency to follow current fashions continued until the late 1960s, when it became popular to revert to long, full-skirted designs reminiscent of the Victorian era.

Today, Western wedding dresses are usually white though "wedding white" includes shades such as eggshell ecru,and ivory.

Later, many people assumed that the color white was intended to symbolize virginity, though this was not the original intention: it was the color blue that was connected to purity, piety, faithfulness, and the Virgin Mary.