Sleeves: Too much to ask?
A friend of mine who is getting married in the near future graciously asked her future SIL to be in her bridal party. The future SIL gushed that she was honored, as you would expect. Then the two had a conversation that went something like this.
FSIL: But what about my tattoos?
Friend: I’m not following you. What about them?
FSIL: Well, some people are uncomfortable with them appearing in the wedding photos. Or up in front of the alter.
Friend: There won’t be an alter. We’re getting married outside.
FSIL: Not the point. I want to know if you would prefer that I wear long sleeves.
I guess my friend is more gracious than she thought, because, she told me, she never even considered asking her fiance’s sister to cover her tats. Big, colorful, full-arm tattoos, to be exact.
But other brides-to-be may feel that tattoos shouldn’t be in full view during nuptials. And that is their prerogative, as it is these future wives that have the privilege of dictating what their attendants will wear. Unfortunately, the world of wedding wear is currently going through a phase in which strapless dresses reign supreme. So finding a dress with wrist-length sleeves means doing a little (virtual) legwork. How do I know this? Because I’ve been searching for like an hour now.
Anyway, here is what I came up with:
This combo, from Jordan Fashions, is comprised of a beaded chiffon princess line gown with a V-neckline and a matching chiffon bolero jacket. I’m not particularly enamored with it, but at least it’s got coverage.
Everything else I found had teensy-weensy jackets with sheer half sleeves. Now, admittedly, I didn’t look *that* hard, but come on…where are the sleeves? Why do brides and bridesmaids have to freeze their shoulders off in the wintertime? Or deal with the embarrassment of baring arms they aren’t exactly proud of?
Why, why, why, why, why?
I know! This is so frustrating. I am searching for a wedding dress with some sort of sleeve — any sort, really — and about the best I can do is cap sleeves. It’s not a modesty thing — I just never envisioned a strapless wedding dress for myself. I may just have cap sleeves put on one dress I like.
As for bridesmaid dresses, just for fun, I searched on the wedding websites “dress finders”. When I asked it for long sleeves, it came up with two options, one of which was sheer chiffon, and one of which was a jacket to go over another dress. With tank straps. So much for that.
For brides, Jasmine Bridal’s “Temple Ready” option allows you to choose the neckline and sleeves you want, for any dress in the entire collection.
http://www.jasminebridal.com/html/web2/promotions_templeready.asp
In general, lines aimed at Mormons (aka Latter Day Saints) will have sleeves on their dresses, as sleeveless outfits are not permitted in Mormon temples.
Thanks for that link, Style Graduate. I’ve been looking at websites aimed at Mormons, but hadn’t come across that one. I’m sooo glad to see that they offer full-length satin sleeves. I’m getting married in the dead of winter, and even though the church has heating, I always have to keep a sweater on in there. I don’t want to freeze on my wedding day!
A few years ago, I saw a picture in a wedding magazine (I think it was Martha Stewart’s) that featured a bridesmaid wearing a dress in some thin, slippery fabric, topped with a lovely cashmere cardigan embroidered with pearl beads. I remember thinking that it was a great idea, seeing as it would prevent any concerns about one’s arms, plus avoiding some, er, breast-related issues that might crop up during a chilly ceremony.
Hooray for sleeves! I’ve always thought that long sleeves add an element of old time class to a gown.
Darn. That was me above.
And while the gown pictured above is attractive, that color is simply awful for her skin tone.
What a good find! The dress is what we call in the South gaaawwwwdjus!
The dress would be great, too, if it was a halter style w/the little shrug w/the Raphaelite sleeves to cover the gaudy beauty of the bridesmaid. Also love the goldenish color–so much better than the mint green or even the black (or gray!) for the bridesmaids. Someone could even really wear it for another special occasion!
I will google it again when I get the chance, but earlier, I had supplied the address of a website that offered quite a lot of traditionally-styled wedding dresses with sleeves, here on this very blog. I don’t know how many people took a look at it, as I think it might have been a Western Wear kind of link, but the dresses themselves were all very traditional. With sleeves.
A lot of manufacturers opt for sleeveless dresses because it’s much, much harder to produce a dress that fits a broad spectrum of people when it has sleeves in it. It’s a question of tailoring. No sleeves? Even better, no straps? No worries about the size of the bride’s upper chest area, her shoulders, her biceps, or the length of her arms! Adding sleeves changes the fit entirely – and that’s without the additional prblem of getting the sleeves set properly into the armscyes without twisting or getting weird puckers.
It’s obviously enough of an advantage to the manufacturers that they don’t care about all the input about “where are the SLEEVES for these dresses??” In theory, all these strapless and sleeveless dresses are currently “the fashion;” in truth and in practice, they’re a wonderful convenience for the manufacturers.
Happy Anniversary, NtB!
Happy anniversary, NtB! The GK sends his favorite blogger many nookies in honor of the occasion!
Thanks, La BellaDonna and GK! I’ve been so busy, I plum forgot! I can’t believe it’s been a year already
I found that Watters has some very nice bridesmaid dresses with sleeves, they just hide them all the way at the back of their collection on their website!
Just imagine trying to go to a winter formal in a place where they actually have winters, without sleeves. From my house we can see the bus stop for the middle and high school students in our neighborhood, and even the 11 and 12 year old girls are shivering to death in the name of Fashion (in February it’s either hilarious or tragic — they’re sleeveless in the snow. There’s actual snow falling on their bare arms. Ugh.) The girls also buy sleeveless gowns for the formals, and then they spend the entire night in their now-shivering boyfriends’ jackets. So, so silly.
I suppose the whole thing is a grand excuse for learning how to sew properly.
I know a girl who knit herself a sleeve-thing for her sleeveless dress out of angora (which is a bunny hair yarn) and it looked amazing… I know knit items sound funny for a wedding, but it was lacework and didn’t look knit.
I have a friend who was in a house fire and rather badly burned on her arms and back as a child. She had a terrible time finding a wedding dress, she ended up going the vintage route, but I remember going through dozens of bridal magazines and there was nothing suitable that did not look either weird or totally eighties and shiny.
i asked for 11 year old brides maid dress