Jewellery News

Think white weddings and think of ivy covered churches, green lawns, champagne, and the bride in pristine white accompanied by her bridesmaids like a flower in bloom. Wedding dresses are the stuff of dreams. Every girl secretly cherishes a vision of herself in shimmering white, with train, tiara, and veil, walking towards her destiny. Which other colour can so effectively frame the glowing radiance of her face or form so striking a contrast to the severe black of her groom?

We are so used to thinking white for weddings that we imagine that it has always been the colour of choice. The truth of course is that wedding colours used to be rich and vibrant, embellished maybe by silver or gold lace. Traditionally, white has symbolized royal mourning and even today, many cultures wear white at funerals. White today symbolizes purity, innocence, and virginity.

White wedding dresses came into fashion with Queen Victoria’s wedding, perhaps dictated by her very feminine wish to ‘show off ‘her imported white laced wedding dress, which was much publicized. White also acquired snob value since it was a colour so difficult to maintain only the rich could afford it. However, wedding dresses in different colours and styles were still worn until the pre-war years. With the publication of Emily Post’s ‘Etiquette,” fashion reverted to long full skirted dresses of white, reminiscent of the Victorian era, a cultural obsession that continues today.

It seems sacrilege now to think of other colours for the formal wedding gown. Fashionable society magazines or television and movie portrayals by actors play a key role in determining trends. Fashion is fickle but so far the ‘style gurus’ have reinforced the romantic concept of formal white wedding dresses.

Wedding dresses, no matter what the period or culture have been designed to display the bride at her best and to, not so subtly, announce publicly the status of the family. There are creative experiments even in this limited colour palette to find just the right touch of ‘individuality’ so necessary for the modern ‘white wedding’. Today the exclusive wedding dress can range from snowy white to soft ecru, from elegant ivory to eggshell purity, from cream and beige to milky white or even to the faintest hint of pastels. The material is usually satins or silks but jacquards, heavy brocades, delicate lace, sheer organza, misty tulles, transparent nets and muslins, smooth linen or soft cotton or the latest polyesters – the list goes on. They may be embroidered with silk, gold or silver thread or kept starkly simple, gorgeously ruffled and layered, or sleek and slim – the aim is to have a beautiful, customized and as expensive a gown as your budget allows.

No matter what the select shade of white used, no matter what gorgeous fabric it is fashioned out of, the essence of a formal white wedding is finally its uniqueness. Exclusivity is de rigueur for all.