A Gown Apart
By Never teh BrideI look at a lot of wedding gowns. Not only do I look for gowns to feature here, but I also spend a good amount of time searching for the gown I’ll someday (hopefully) wear to my own wedding. Sometimes, looking through pages and pages of these gowns, I start to think I’m going blind. Why? Because all I see is white! Pure, dazzling, blinding white!
So, to save my poor eyes and briefly step away from the all-white paradigm, I will now present images of two unusual and interesting gowns. Unfortunately, I have no idea whose designs these are. (If you do, please tell me!) All I know is that Bargain Bride will custom make them for you…usually for less than $500!
It’s your wedding for goodness sake! Get creative!
December 16th, 2005 at 5:39 pm
The lavender gown, it is beautiful. The other dress, the Annalucia would like it better if it featured some color other than the black. The heavy border about the veil reminds her of the mourning veil, or the black-bordered handkerchief of days gone by. But the peach, or the gold, or the pale blue on the white background, it would be quite pleasing to the eye.
And as the Manolo’s knowledgeable posters have pointed out before, the all-white wedding dress, it is quite the new innovation, and if one’s complexion is not suited to pure white, one would do better in another color. The Sonetka, that is the eldest daughter of the Annalucia, is strawberry-blonde and hazel-eyed. She would have looked quite washed out in the white; instead she wore the sky blue and looked lovely.
December 16th, 2005 at 5:46 pm
The Megaera’s friend got married in a very pale lavender dress with the bodice subtly shot with gold thread, while the Megaera wore a similar style in a royal purple. Unfortunately for the Megaera, her friend was not quite as endowed in the area of the chest, and the bodice which looked quite stunning on her left the Megaera holding her bouquet up high to hide her massive decolletage, ah the Megaera, she would have given her kingdom for a fichu.
December 16th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
I agree with you about the color, Annalucia! THe black gloves and the headpiece make me think of the old Italian widows who are always admonishing their grandsons to “Eat! Eat!” I would wear it if the black were pink as I myself am rather pink.
December 16th, 2005 at 6:18 pm
I want to thank you, Megaera, for today you prompted me to learn all about the fichu! An item of clothing I was not heretofore familiar with!
December 16th, 2005 at 7:03 pm
Hello! Congrats on a great job.
I believe the top gown is a Demetrios design. I looked at quite a few when choosing my own–they (Demetrios) appear in a lot of stores up here in Canada.
Also, in Italy, brides wear all kinds of colors. It’s common to see red dresses in wedding magazines and tons of pink, blue, beige, whatever. It seems wierd to us North Americans but it certainly opens up a lot of options.
I myself would have died for a red gown, but I think my fiances mother would yell “WHORE!” as I went up the aisle (she’s Canadian). I stuck with white…but I’m wearing red shoes. Ha! (they’ll be hiding under my dress).
December 16th, 2005 at 7:31 pm
HOORAY for color!! I myself will be wearing a champagne gold wedding dress! I couldn’t handle white (or even off-white for that matter)…but the gold, its lovely. And it reminds me of the effervescent bubbly drink…and that makes me smile! =D
December 16th, 2005 at 7:57 pm
I think I’d like a red gown, too, cristina, but would feel like a saucy little devil walking down the aisle…and that’s not quite what my religious family would like me feeling on my wedding day! And thanks for putting a name to one of the designers!
Champagne, JayKay, seems like a good compromise for brides for whom white isn’t an option (for color reasons or whatnot) but who don’t want to get too crazy with color. Of course, in and of itself, the champagne gold is a beautiful color!
December 16th, 2005 at 8:18 pm
I too would really love a champagne dress, or possibly a light yellow, even. My complexion goes well with yellow, and the color really makes me smile, so why not! I’m also considering pink. Really, anything but white. It doesn’t look that great on me, and it’s so predictable. I’d rather have something expressive of my personality.
December 16th, 2005 at 9:54 pm
I *LOVE* the watercolor on your lj, the Di!
December 17th, 2005 at 12:48 pm
The black and white gown reminds me of the party dress which Audrey Hepburn wore in Sabrina.
http://www.100megsfree3.com/ahepburn/galleries/sabrina33.jpg
December 17th, 2005 at 11:46 pm
Thank you, Katie! While I was scrolling through the comments, I was cudgelling my brains trying to figure out why that top dress looked so familiar.
The second dress is beautiful. It’s absolutely courtly.
December 19th, 2005 at 10:46 am
The second dress is St. Pucci…I was considering it before finally settling on a beautiful Anne Barge for my wedding in October.
December 19th, 2005 at 11:31 am
“I think I’d like a red gown, too, cristina, but would feel like a saucy little devil walking down the aisle…and that’s not quite what my religious family would like me feeling on my wedding day!”
Never teh Bride, the red is the traditional color for the Chinese bride. Also for the Turkish bride, and no doubt for many other brides in the great Eurasian landmass. So one need not be a “saucy little devil.” One may merely borrow an attractive tradition from another culture, and if NTB has the hair and skin coloring to complement the red, then she should definitely go for it.
December 19th, 2005 at 11:56 am
When I was very young, I loved the idea of a red wedding dress. Red seemed so much more romantic than white–still does.
Di, the gold wedding gown sounds beautiful. I wore a gold formal with a veil and tennis shoes for Halloween (it was a runaway bride costume) and people recognized it as a wedding gown. People aren’t quite as stuck on white as we might think.
December 21st, 2005 at 4:59 pm
*sigh* This bride’s very Chinese mother prevented her from wearing a red gown to the church. “All Chinese brides wear white dress,” she scolded me, “and change to red at the dinner.”
“But I’m not all Chinese brides,” I protested.
“You will not wear red! You will wear a white dress!” she howled at me, and this went on and on until my father pointed out that since my mother was going through chemotherapy, perhaps I ought to concede her the point so she could stop freaking out. This despite the fact that the dress of my dreams, a Selia Yang number in red silk satin, was hanging in an East Village window calling my name. Even now, after my wedding is all over, I think of that red dress and fantasize that my husband and I have a vicious row, divorce, and then get married again, and this time *I* get to pick the dress. You see how poisonous it is when you don’t get your way?