A
wedding dress or
wedding gown is
clothingA feature of nearly all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing or clothes, a category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body....
worn by a bride during a
weddingA wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
ceremony. Color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants.
Western culture
Weddings performed during and immediately following the medieval era 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 the nobility and the higher social classes. Brides were therefore expected to dress in a manner that cast their families in the most favorable light, for they were not representing only themselves during the ceremony. Brides of an elevated social standing often wore rich colors and expensive fabrics. It was common to see such brides wearing bold colors and layers of furs, velvet and silk. Brides of a lower social standing often copied the elegant styles of wealthier brides as best they could.
Over the centuries, brides continued to dress in a manner befitting their social status—always in the height of fashion, with the richest, boldest materials money could buy. The poorest of brides wore their best church dress on their wedding day. The amount of material a wedding dress contained also was a reflection of the bride's social standing and indicated the extent of the family's wealth to wedding guests. Today, there are wedding dresses available in all price ranges, and Western traditions have loosened up to include a rainbow of colors and variety of lengths, which are now considered acceptable. Women may purchase ready-made gowns, wear a family heirloom, or they may choose to have a
dressmakerA dressmaker is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Also called a mantua-maker or a modiste.-History of dressmaking:...
create one for her. In addition, today many bridal salons have samples of wedding gowns in their stores where the bride selects a certain style and orders one to be made to fit.
Wedding dresses have traditionally been based on the popular styles of the day. For example, in the 1920s, wedding dresses were typically short in the front with a longer train in the back and were worn with
clocheThe cloche hat is a fitted, bell-shaped hat that was popular during the 1920s. Caroline Reboux is the creator of the cloche hat....
-style wedding veils. This tendency to follow current fashions continued until the late 1940s, when it became popular to revert to long, full-skirted designs reminiscent of the Victorian era. Although there has always been a style that dominates the bridal market for a time, and then shifts with the changes in fashion, a growing number of modern brides are not choosing to follow these trends. This is due in large part to non-traditional and non-first-time weddings, and women who are marrying later in life.
Today, Western wedding dresses are usually white, though "wedding white" includes creamy shades such as
eggshell,
ecruEcru describes the shade greyish-pale yellow or a light greyish-yellowish brown. It is often used to describe such fabrics as silk and linen in their unbleached state...
and
ivoryIvory is an off-white color that resembles ivory, the material out of which the teeth and tusks of animals is made...
. One of the first women to wear white at her wedding was Mary Queen of Scots, when she married François II of
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. However, white was not then a tradition but rather a choice and one considered inauspicious, since white was the official colour of mourning in France at the time.
White did not become a popular option until 1840, after the marriage of
Queen VictoriaVictoria was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death...
to Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Victoria had worn a white gown for the event so as to incorporate some lace she owned. The official wedding portrait photograph was widely published, and many other brides opted for a similar dress in honor of the Queen's choice.
The tradition continues today in the form of a
white weddingA white wedding is a traditional formal or semi-formal Western wedding. The term refers to the white color of the wedding dress, which became popular in the Victorian era, after Queen Victoria wore a white lace dress at her wedding...
, though prior to the
Victorian eraThe Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 until her death on the 22nd of January 1901. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements...
, a bride was married in any color except black (the color of mourning) or red (which was connected with prostitutes). However, in
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
during the 19th century, it was popular for brides to wear dark colors, especially black. Later, many people assumed that the color white was intended to symbolize
virginityA virgin is, originally, a woman who has never had sexual intercourse. Virginity is the state of being a virgin. It is derived from the Latin virgo, which means "sexually inexperienced woman", used typically of adolescents, but also of older women, and even goddesses.As in Latin, the English word...
, though this had not been the original intention. (It was the color blue that was connected to purity.) The white gown is in fact a symbolic Christening gown. The are a variation of the white
surpliceA surplice is a liturgical vestment of the Western Christian Church...
worn in the Western Catholic tradition by members of the clergy, church choirs and servers and the gowns worn by girls making their
first communionThe First Communion is a Roman Catholic ceremony. It is the colloquial name for a person's first reception of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Roman Catholics believe this event to be very important, as the Eucharist is one of the central focuses of the Roman Catholic Church...
and at their confirmation and also by women making
religious vowsReligious vows are the public vows made by the members of the religious life – cenobitic and eremitic – of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox Churches, whereby they confirm their public profession of the Evangelical Counsels or Benedictine equivalent...
. Today, the white dress is normally understood merely as the most traditional and popular choice for weddings.
Eastern culture
Many wedding dresses in
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
(
wedding sariA wedding sari is the traditional wedding dress of Indian women. The sari is traditionally red, with golden embroidery....
) and
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
(in the traditional form of the
Ao daiThe ao dai is a Vietnamese national outfit primarily for women. In its current form, it is a tight-fitting silk tunic worn over pantaloons. Áo dài is pronounced , approximately ow-zye in the North, and with a y sound for the z in the South. Áo is derived from a Middle Chinese word meaning "padded...
) are colored red, the traditional color of good luck and auspiciousness. Nowadays, many women opt not to wear red and choose other colors. In modern Chinese weddings, the bride usually opts for the white Western dress or changes from a white gown to a red gown later in the day and sometimes a gold-colored gown later on.
South IndiaSouth India, also known as the Dravida in the Indian anthem, is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of area...
n weddings traditionally use white or cream-colored saris. Indian brides in Western countries often wear the
sariA sari or saree or shari is a female garment in the Indian Subcontinent. A sari is a strip of unstitched cloth, ranging from four to nine metres in length that is draped over the body in various styles...
at the wedding ceremony and change into traditional Indian wear afterwards (lehnga, choli, etc.).
In
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, brides will often wear three or more dresses throughout the ceremony and subsequent celebrations with a traditional
kimonoThe is a Japanese traditional garment worn by women, men and children. The word "kimono", which literally means a "thing to wear" , has come to denote these full-length robes...
, white and colour dress combination being popular. The Javanese people of
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
wear a
kebayaA Kebaya is a traditional blouse-dress combination worn by women in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Burma, Singapore, and some parts of Cambodia...
, a traditional kind of blouse, along with
batikBatik is cloth which traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Due to modern advances in the textile industry, the term has been extended to include fabrics which incorporate traditional batik patterns even if they are not produced using the wax-resist dyeing techniques...
.
In the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, variations of the
Baro't sayaBaro't saya is the unofficial national dress of the Philippines and is worn by women. The name is a contraction of the Tagalog words baro at saya, meaning "dress and skirt".-History:...
are considered to be wedding attire for women, along with the
Barong TagalogThe barong Tagalog is an embroidered formal garment of the Philippines. It is very lightweight and worn untucked , over an undershirt. It is a common wedding and formal attire for Filipino men as well as women...
for men.
Native American culture
The
indigenous peoples of the AmericasThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
have varying traditions related to weddings and thus wedding dresses. A
HopiThe Hopi are American Indians people who primarily live on the 12,635 km² Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi Reservation is entirely surrounded by the much larger Navajo Reservation. The two nations used to share the Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area...
bride traditionally would have her garments woven by the groom and any men in the village who wished to participate. The garments consisted of a large belt, two all-white wedding robes, a white wedding robe with red stripes at top and bottom, white buckskin leggings and moccasins, a string for tying the hair, and a reed mat in which to wrap the outfit. This outfit also would serve as a shroud, since these garments would be necessary for the trip through the underworld. A
PuebloPueblos are traditional communities of Native Americans in the southwestern United States of America. The communities are recognized worldwide for their adobe buildings, which are sometimes called "pueblos"...
bride wore a cotton garment tied above the right shoulder, secured with a belt around the waist. In the traditions of the
DelawareDelaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, a British nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor, after whom Cape Henlopen was originally named.Delaware is located in...
, a bride would wear a knee-length skirt of deerskin and a band of wampum beads around her forehead. Except for fine beads or shell necklaces, the body would be bare from the waist up. If it were a winter wedding, she would wear deerskin leggings and moccasins and a robe of turkey feathers. Her face would be painted with white, red and yellow clay. The tribes of Northern
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
(which include the
Klamath]The Klamath are a Native American tribe of the Plateau culture area in Southern Oregon.-Pre-contact:Prior to the arrival of European explorers, the Klamath people lived in the area around the Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath, Williamson, and Sprague rivers...
, the
ModocThe Modoc tribe is a group of Native American people who originally lived in the area which is now northeastern California and central Southern Oregon. They are currently divided between Oregon and Oklahoma. The latter are a federally-recognized tribe, the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma...
and the
YurokYurok may refer to:*Yurok tribe, a Native American tribe of northern California*Yurok language, the Algic language of the Yurok tribe*USS Yurok , a fleet tug laid down for the United States Navy in 1945, but converted into a submarine rescue vessel prior to completion and commissioned as USS...
) had a traditional bridal dress woven in symbolic colors: white for the east, blue for the south, yellow (orange) for the west; and black for the north. Turquoise and silver jewelry were worn by both the bride and the groom in addition to a silver concho belt. Jewelry was considered a shield against evils including hunger, poverty and bad luck.