Stewart Parvin, Spring 2012

This week’s LOVE/HATE featured wedding dress comes from Stewart Parvin’s 2012 collection, shown at the White Gallery London. It is, of course, one of the many short wedding dresses out there – perhaps a reception dress – but unlike most, this is absolutely basic, with no embellishments. Not a single bell or whistle. It’s certainly not going to appeal to every bride or even most brides, possibly for its plainness and possibly for its silhouette. Is it for you? Can you even see it as a wedding dress, versus a little something springy for a semi-formal function? I am going to say love, but it would have to be accessorized just right – in my mind, a silk shawl and something else that I can put my finger on. Thoughts?

When you’re choosing a wedding dress, wanting too much can become a problem. You want a short wedding dress… no, a long one! A V neck! A square neckline! A wrap dress? A bubble hem?! There are just so many choices when it comes to wedding dress, from necklines to hemlines to fabric and more. The less decisive bride-to-be may find herself trying to find it all in a single wedding dress and ending up less than satisfied as a result.

I wish I knew who created this dress - any leads, my lovelies?

So what do we have here? To my eyes it looks like an example of a dress that’s trying too hard to be too many things. I’m not a fan of the short skirt/long skirt look to begin with, but I don’t think I’d be crazy about this wedding dress (with flowers flowers everywhere, no less) even if it had a uniform length skirt. I’m going with hate on this one – even if I could see it looking rather pretty on the right bride. Yes, I can hate something and still admit it’s pretty. What do you think? Too busy, or awesome in a Flamenco-meets-Broadway kind of way?

Fashion is fashion, and for the most part, it’s its own animal that’s only tangentially related to what most of us actually wear. That’s true for wedding fashion, too, which means that every season, alongside all the gorgeous wedding gowns, we get to point and snicker at some really edgy wedding dresses, unusual wedding gowns, and wacky bridesmaids dresses. But isn’t that part of what makes fashion fun? I collected a whole bunch of photos of 2011 and 2012 wedding dresses that illustrate various trends – or circular fads – that make me scratch my head. Have a look and when you’re done, tell us what wedding fashions make you go “Huh?”

Late 70s disco chic clubwear wedding gown what? (Alan Hannah Spring 2012)

How things like sheer bridal mumus make it into shows (Oscar De La Renta Bridal Spring 2012)

Crazy fringe... crazy MISPLACED fringe (Inmaculada García 2011)

(more…)

Every few years, bows make a comeback. Sometimes it’s on gowns for brides, sometimes it’s on frocks for bridesmaids, but like clockwork, the bows always find their way into this or that season’s dresses as if they haven’t already been done to death. And just recently a little birdie whispered in my ear that the 2012 wedding dress trends included, you guessed it, bows. I have a funny fascination with bows that began the first time I saw a giant bow placed smack dab on a bust as if the breasts concealed underneath were a gift waiting to be unwrapped. Very naughty, really.

Want to see some of the 2012 bows? (And where they’ve ended up this go around, which includes the entirety of the torso and back, waist and bust, sometimes turned completely to the side.) Your wish is my command!

Spring 2012 by Douglas Hannant

Spring 2012 by Vera Wang

Spring 2012 by Tara Keely

Spring 2012 by Alan Hannah

Aaaand another example of classic Vera (along with the classic Vera model)

What do you think? Bows, yes or omigosh no?

One of the things I think I regret most about my own wedding experience was buying my gown online. NOT, I want to stress, that I think there’s anything wrong with buying online if you’re not one for shopping. I just wish I’d gotten to have that wedding dress shopping experience that is so often cited as one of those special elements of wedding planning that bride will remember forever. Only problem was that in my case, shopping was difficult. My mom was in another state. As a freelancer, my schedule was flexible, but mostly when it came to daytime on weekdays – precisely when my girlfriends were at work. There was something about the notion of shopping for my gown alone that just plain bummed me out. End result, I ended up with something not quite right instead of, say, one of the Priscilla of Boston wedding dresses that might have been my first choice.

Want to know a secret about me? I still imagine myself walking into somewhere like Priscilla of Boston (which just happens to be local to me and just plain awesome all around), and getting the celebrity-style bride-to-be treatment along with my mom and a bestie or two, even though my hope is that I’ll never actually need another wedding dress! (Note: I am not the kind of weirdo who would actually go try on a bunch of gowns, fibbing about being engaged all the while. I’m this shy of being that kind of weirdo, but not there yet.)

Aren’t those just beautiful? …and there I go hypothetically wedding gown shopping all over again.

Indeed, if I had my whole wedding to do over again, I’d probably actually hit up an actual real live luxury bridal shop this time around after figuring out a day and time that worked for those of my loved ones who are ladies instead of just going it alone. Not that there’s anything wrong with gown shopping alone if that’s what you want to do, but I personally didn’t find my wedding gown shopping and wedding gown alteration experience all that jazzy. (Did you know that P of B – can I call it that? – can make a muslin before making your gown so it fits your body perfectly? Would have saved me a lot of hassle, that’s for sure…)

So that’s my sob story – no one to shop with, no pre-wedding pampering in the bridal salon. Now I’m asking you: What was the best part of your wedding gown shopping experience? What, if anything, do you regret about your wedding gown shopping experience?

Wearing one wedding dress? How passé! I kid, I kid… most brides I know have worn a single wedding dress, bustled as necessary, perhaps removing a bolero between the ceremony and reception. My dress was the only garb I wore on my wedding day – at least until I changed into a t-shirt and jeans after everyone had gone home.

But I do know there’s a lust for variety and showpieces among some brides, hence the very minor “trend” of buying and then wearing two wedding dresses. (Not at the same time, of course, though that could be interesting!) There are also wedding dresses with detachable trains, though I haven’t seen many lately. And according to some sources, this year and next year, more and more brides will be wearing convertible wedding dresses. Convertible wedding dresses like these from Martina Liana:

From pretty bridal gown to party dress...

The folds hide the attachments!

So, what do you think? Are convertible wedding dresses going to catch on in a big way, this year and next, or is this yet another outlier bridal style being touted as the next huge thing?

I’m inclined to say LOVE – sometimes only for the concept, not the execution – because dancing one’s bridal butt off in a full skirt isn’t all that easy, especially for the uncoordinated. HOWEVER, as much as I do love the idea, I simply cannot get behind the convertible wedding dress that turns not into a kicky party frock, but rather into disco shorts…

Words fail me...