The Essay On The History And Evolution Of Wedding Dresses.

Who invented wedding dresses?

What was the original color of wedding dresses?

Where did the wedding dress originate?

Why do brides wear white dresses?

What do different color wedding dresses mean?

What does a wedding dress train represent?

Why do brides wear a veil?

What is the longest wedding dress train?

What are the different train lengths for wedding dresses?

Why does a bride hold a bouquet?

Where did the tradition of a bridal bouquet come from?

What the most commonly fabrics used in wedding dresses?

Who Invented Wedding Dresses?

Human beings across the world love weddings so as to settle in their marriages. During the weddings, new attires are worn to make the day colorful and great. Other attires have a significant meaning as to why they are worn. Wedding dresses, therefore, involve the dresses usually long of white color that the bride wears during her marriage ceremony. To this extent, therefore, the essay will discuss the history of the wedding dresses and how it has evolved over time in the last one hundred years.

Originally, marriages were made for political, country or even families relations. During this occasion, women used to wear fabrics that used to show how wealth their family is and even the social class that their parent had in the society. Those from the rich families used silk and velvet while the poor used to wear their best clothes used to wear on Sundays. In 1405, the first wedding dress was introduced by Philippa of England during the 1840 marriage of Queen of England (Zoi, & Maria, 2014).

The original wedding dresses had no specific color. In fact, brides during this period of time used wedding dresses depending on their family wealth and social status in the society. There were different colors used depending on the family class but the most used color was blank. The current trend of wearing a white wedding dress started just the other day after the royalty of Victoria times. Originally, marriages were made for the purposes of political or even business basis, not love affairs. As a result of this, there were no wedding dresses. The bride used to wear the best dress that makes her appear beautiful and colorful. The rich and the poor worn different dresses depending on the family wealthy and social class. Later during the time of Queen Victoria, she wore the first white wedding dress during her marriage with Albert of Saxe. Since that day, white wedding dress became very popular during marriages (Sloan, 2016).

In a wedding, different colors of wedding dresses have a different meaning. Originally, the blue color in a dress meant purity and femininity (Roach, & Haynes, 2015). After the queen Victoria marriage using a white wedding dress, brides started using it in their marriage ceremonies. The reason for wearing this white wedding dresses is that white color is very closely associated with virginity, innocence, and light, been good and also been perfect (Gigliotti, 2016). It is a sign of purity, virginity, and goodness. It was believed that the virgin and perfect bride will bring joy to the man. The bride also holds flowers and this tradition of brides to hold bouquet can be backdated until the time of ancient empire. In this period, roman used flowers for the purposes of decorations for weddings. This is because, they viewed flowers as a symbol for bride fertility, purity and also fidelity management.

What Was the Original Color of Wedding Dresses?

Also, flowers signify a new beginning that the couple will be starting. Moreover, the bouquet was associated with banning evil spirits during this period and therefore, Roman introduced it at weddings in order to drive away evil spirits during weddings occasion. As a result of this, the tradition of bridal bouquet can be stemmed back to this ancient Roma (Carter & Duncan, 2017). The wedding dresses had a train and its history can be traced back to middle age. During this period even until today, the wedding dress train symbolizes the portion the bride occupies in the society. This was also linked with the social status of the bride's family. Those from the rich family has the longest train (Arend, 2016).

Wedding dresses have changed with time in different colors in a wedding dress having different meanings. White symbolizes innocence, purity, and cleanliness. Yellow show wisdom, happiness, and intellectuality. Red symbolizes power, health, and strength. Blue show peace, youthful, and spirituality. Green represents the presence of harmony and peace. Gold color show wealth with pink representing love and attractiveness. Originally, brides used to wear the wedding veil with the sole reason of covering prevent evil spirits from interfering with her marriage happiness. After the wedding of the Queen Victoria of United Kingdom, wedding veils are used by the brides during the wedding period to signify innocence and purity of the bride. Other reasons include prevention of the bride from escaping during the wedding and also symbolizes the groom ownership (Foster, Johnson & Eicher, 2003). The commonly used fabric was satin, taffeta which is similar to satin but it crisp rustles when the bride moves. Also, we have organza, chiffon which is a soft fabric, charmeuse, lace and also tulle.

The wedding dresses have evolved over time more so in the last one hundred years with the white color dominating the wedding dresses. Some of the notable changes will be discussed in the below discussion.

During this period, the bride wore loose wedding dresses which were floaty and floor-length. This was because it was could allow the bride to move freely and easier. It was due to this design that dancing during the wedding was introduced and become a norm (Essig, 2016).

During this period, the flapper style of dressing was very popular and as result, it influenced the designing of the wedding dresses for the brides. The wedding dress of this time was white in color with a neckline which was high scooped. Also, it had a low waist, slim and straight and a veil on the head. The wedding dress for this period of time were more sophisticated flapper-style dresses (Gigliotti, 2016).   

Where Did the Wedding Dress Originate?

In this period, the wedding dresses were of simple design. They were long sleeved, had a high neckline, and had a figure-skimming shape. It was made to perfectly fit the bride that is the way it was made to be slim. Also, if a bride would not avoid the silk, she would wear an alternative of rayon which had the same look like the silk (Foster, Johnson & Eicher, 2013).

During this time, the wedding dresses design looked similar to that of the 1930s. In fact, no changes that occurred as far as the design is concerned. In this period, slim-fit and wedding dress with high necklines and long sleeves were used by the so many brides in their marriages. 

In this time of evolution of the wedding dresses, ball gowns with a big skirt were highly used and trending. Brides during this time were more anxious and particular when it comes to the issue of wedding dresses. Also, it was during this period that the strapless design of wedding dresses started to enter into the market. It was aimed at replacing the previous fashion of long sleeves and high necklines.

Also, this time was accompanied by the period when miniskirts were very popular. This made the wedding dresses of this time became shorter and mutton sleeved in order to match the rise of miniskirts (Kwon, 2018).

The wedding dresses of this period had big sleeves with high neck. The sleeves had a puff at the elbow. This design was the wildly used during this period (Zoi & Maria, 2014).

This period saw the introduction of strapless gowns. Also, during the same period, the wedding dresses started to be slimmer with puffy shoulder sleeve (Sloan, 2016).

In this period, the gowns were returned to sleeves because people were tired by the strapless design which was popular then. Also, during this period, an American designer introduced a new design which was a tight fitting dress and it appeared like a tango dress (Roach & Haynes, 2015).

This period marked a royal return of the wedding dresses with sleeves. Today, brides use all types of sleeves. Either sleeveless, long sleeves or even blouson sleeves. Also, this period saw the emergence of a see-through gown style which has a lot of netting. Brides today consider most their individual personality unlike the past when brides cared more of the trending design Ehrman, 2014).  

Conclusion

In conclusion, wedding dresses have come a long way in terms of design to be where they are today. They largely depended on the kind of the design trending. Some were unhappy about some trending dress design but they just accepted because it was the style of the today. Nowadays, things have changed and people have started to look the individual personality before deciding on the wedding dress to wear. 

References

Arend, P. (2016). Consumption as common sense: Heteronormative hegemony and white wedding desire. Journal of Consumer Culture, 16(1), 144-163.

Carter, J., & Duncan, S. (2017). Wedding paradoxes: individualized conformity and the ‘perfect day’. The Sociological Review, 65(1), 3-20.

Castañeda, D. (2015). Virginity Unmasked: The Many Meanings of Virginity. Sex Roles, 73(1-2), 83-85.

Ehrman, E. (2014). The wedding dress: 300 years of bridal fashions. V&A Publishing.

Ehrman, E. (2014). The wedding dress: 300 years of bridal fashions. V&A Publishing.

Essig, L. (2016). “All the World Was There” and Other White Lies about the Royal Wedding. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 3(2), 35-55.

Foster, H. B., Johnson, D. C., & Eicher, J. B. (Eds.). (2013). Wedding dress across cultures. Berg Publishers.

Gigliotti, J. (2016). Who was Queen Victoria?. Penguin UK.

Kwon, S. (2018). Development of Basic Pattern of Wedding Dress I-Focused on Torso Pattern for Top Dresses. ?????????, 20(4), 439-448.

Roach, A., & Haynes, J. (2015). The White Paper Bride.

Sloan, C. (2016). Possessing Dresses: Fashion and Female Community in The Woman in White. Victorian Literature and Culture, 44(4), 801-816.

Zoi, A., & Maria, G. (2014). The traditional evolution of style and especially of color of bridal dresses in different cultures during the centuries. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 4(4), 264.