Wedding dress

Wedding dresses hold a significant place in fashion, symbolizing personal expression, and cultural traditions and societal values.

[1] These wedding dresses often represent a blend of heritage and contemporary trends, making them a pivotal aspect of bridal fashion and a reflection of evolving style in society.

Wedding dress fashion has evolved significantly, shaped by shifts in aesthetic preferences, technological advancements, and broader cultural trends.

Historically, bridal attire featured elaborate designs with structured silhouettes and intricate detailing, reflecting the prevailing styles of their time.

Wedding dresses continue to adapt to contemporary fashion trends while retaining elements of tradition, offering a wide range of styles that allow brides to express their individuality.

[4] The history of wedding dresses encompasses a diverse array of traditions and cultural practices, each shaped by the social, religious, and economic contexts of their time.

This tendency to follow current fashions continued until the late 1960s, when it became popular to revert to long, full-skirted designs reminiscent of the Victorian era.

[14] In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the color white is used as a symbol of purity, innocence, and cleanliness, particularly in religious ceremonies, including weddings.

[15] For weddings in the temple, white clothing is also worn by all participants during the ceremony, both men and women, to symbolize unity and equality before God.

[18] Many wedding dresses in China, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are red; the traditional Indian color representing good luck and auspiciousness.

[1] Vietnamese wedding dresses (in the traditional form of áo tấc the ancient Ao dai) were dark blue.

Today fabrics like crepe, Georgette, charmeuse, and satin are used, and colors have been expanded to include gold, pink, orange, maroon, brown, and yellow as well.

Today, many Kurds associate red wedding dresses with impoverished Kurdish rural society and it is no longer commonly worn.

The tribes of Northern California (which include the Klamath, the Modoc, and the Yurok) 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.

A white wedding dress, 2024
Wedding dress from 1891. Until the late 1960s wedding dresses reflected the styles of the day; since then they have often been based on Victorian styles.
Qing-dynasty styled traditional Chinese wedding dress with a phoenix crown (鳳冠) headpiece still used in modern Taiwanese weddings.
A Self-portrait of a Hong Kong bride wearing a Qungua, a traditional Chinese wedding attire, before her wedding in the 1960s
Japanese formal wedding dress still used today.
Apache bride