20 Forgotten Wedding Dress Trends That Once Ruled The Aisle

Prior to 1840, most brides had no bridal gown at all. They just got married in whatever their best dress was, usually blue, gray, green, or brown, and they would wear that same dress to church or on holidays after the wedding. For most people, purchasing a dress for a single day just didn’t make sense at that time.

Queen Victoria was married on February 10, 1840, in a gown of white Spitalfields silk-satin, edged with Honiton lace. It wasn’t meant as a romantic gesture; she chose these materials because she wanted to support British weaving and lacemaking. Newspapers and illustrations spread the image everywhere, and white quickly became aspirational. She wasn’t even first. Mary Queen of Scots wore white in 1558. Victoria just made it fashionable.

When women exchanged layers of heavy petticoats for the steel-caged crinoline in the 1850s and 1860s, they gained a lightweight hoop frame that held their skirts out in a wide dome. It allowed dresses to balloon outward without dragging on the bride. Industrial metalworking had made its way into bridal fashion!

In the 1870s and 1880s, the round crinoline was replaced by a bustle, a garment that pushed out the rear of the skirt over a flatter, more modest-looking front section. Often made from wire frames or padding, the bustle held the shape in place. It wasn’t always comfortable or practical, but this was the fashion at the time.

In the 1890s, wedding dresses had leg-of-mutton sleeves, puffy and stuffed at the shoulder but narrowed down to the wrist. Sometimes the sleeve was stiffened with buckram or feathers. From the 1840s into the 1930s, a bride might wear a garland of wax orange blossoms on her head, a cheaper substitute for real blooms from far-off places. Those flowers lasted longer than the sleeves did.

From 1900 to 1910, Edwardian brides wore straight-front corsets, created by French physician Dr. Inès Gâches-Sarraute to relieve abdominal pressure. They thrust the bust out and the hips back, creating a look that fashion historians have since retroactively called the “S-bend,” which is a name no Edwardian bride ever used. It looks exactly as the name suggests! High-boned lace collars, buttoned tight to the chin, completed the outfit.

Between 1910 and 1918, bridal dresses softened with empire waists and sheer chiffon tunics worn over silk slips, influenced by French fashion designer Paul Poiret, who abandoned corsetry. Some brides donned a Juliet cap, a close-fitting lace or net skullcap borrowed from Shakespearean stage costuming. This remained a popular choice through the 1920s.

Some brides didn’t wear corsets in the 1920s. Instead, they wore tubular, drop-waist gowns that hung loosely at the hips, without a defined waist. This one’s definitely for the women who don’t like getting all cinched up!

In the 1920s, for the first time in recent Western history, bridal hemlines began to rise, exposing the calf and ankle, often at mid-calf length, ankle length, or tea length, sometimes cut shorter in the front and flaring out longer in the back. But even then, hemlines did not go above the knee. The above-the-knee bridal mini wasn’t seen until several decades later.

Wedding dresses, following the 1925 Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts, became embellished with geometric glass beads, sequins, and metallic thread arranged in chevron and sunburst motifs. Many brides exchanged the veil for a silk or satin cloche hat, the popular hat style of the decade, which was sleek and close-fitting.

Brides in the 1930s favored bias-cut gowns, popularized by the French designer Madeleine Vionnet. The fabric was cut at a 45-degree angle, which allowed it to fall in elegant folds that followed the curves of the body. There were no corsets or heavy understructures, just soft flowing satin that fit the body perfectly. It was a far cry from the boxy look of the 1920s.

With silk imports costly during the Great Depression, textile manufacturers introduced synthetic rayon, dubbed “art silk,” allowing cost-conscious brides to purchase liquid satin-like gowns at a low price. Some wore plain white or ivory rayon intentionally, planning to dye it dark afterward and turn it into an evening dress (great hack here). Bouquets of calla lilies were carried in arm-sheaves to complete the look.

From 1940 to 1945, American women increasingly got married in practical wool or rayon suits and daytime dresses rather than in traditional white gowns. This was not mandatory, nor did anyone insist on it. Wartime shortages of fabric, the time constraints imposed by military leave, and general thrift made the suit-and-dress choice a common one.

Britain’s wartime clothing rationing required that brides surrender about 11 coupons for a wedding dress out of an annual allowance that shrank to as low as 24 coupons by 1945. This was not a suggestion; the Board of Trade mandated it. The result was that many British brides simply could not afford to purchase new wedding gowns, and instead wore suits or borrowed dresses.

American brides during the Second World War wore suits purely because of shortages and thrift. In 1942, the U.S. War Production Board issued a directive, Order L-85, that limited the amount of fabric that could be used in the production of all types of garments. However, wedding dresses were an exception, along with maternity wear and religious vestments.

From 1943 to 1948, some brides had their wedding gowns made from military surplus parachutes of silk or synthetic nylon. No rationing coupons were required because it wasn’t new fabric, and so a parachute gown was a sought-after luxury.

Once Christian Dior’s New Look debuted in 1947, 1950s wedding gowns featured nipped-in waists and very full skirts, supported by many layers of tulle, organza, and crinoline petticoats, which marked a return to lavish fabric use after years of wartime austerity. Volume and formality made a comeback!

Though strapless sweetheart necklines were all the rage in the 1950s, many churches forbade brides from revealing their bare shoulders at the altar. A popular workaround was to don a detachable lace bolero jacket or sheer tulle overlay during the service and then take it off after. Brides wore gloves that had minuscule slits in the ring finger for putting on a ring without having to remove the glove.

Audrey Hepburn wed Mel Ferrer in 1954 in a tea-length number with a high collar and wide belt by Pierre Balmain. Most think it was designed by Hubert de Givenchy, who dressed her in many of her movies, but he actually wasn’t responsible for her real wedding dress. It was Balmain.

Grace Kelly wed Prince Rainier III of Monaco on April 19, 1956, in a four-piece gown crafted from 125-year-old antique Brussels rose point lace, silk faille, and thousands of seed pearls. People still often attribute it to Givenchy or Dior. It was constructed by Helen Rose, her Hollywood costume designer, for this single day only.

This content was created with the help of AI.