And then there’s the tradition of closing couture shows with a white wedding gown. Designers have long made wedding dresses for private clients and, during the first half of the 20th century, these gowns sometimes made the shows of the summer collections. Jeanne Lanvin’s white wedding dress, designed for the marriage of her beloved daughter Marguerite Marie-Blanche to the Count Jean de Polignac in 1924, is a poignant example. While the idea of closing a couture show with a white wedding dress may date back to the ’40s or ’50s, by 1957 it had become a tradition—a Vogue article from April that year states that “spring’s Paris Collections… traditionally close with the presentation of a bride’s dress.” Some of these showstoppers, such as Yves Saint Laurent’s cocoon dress from 1965, have become iconic.
Today, even in cultures where white wedding dresses are not the norm—such as China, where traditionally red symbolizes luck and prosperity—some brides change into white dresses for official photographs. And although the white dress is sometimes replaced with a white trouser suit, the color remains a top choice for celebrating a union.
A few more recent celebrity weddings, however, could initiate a break with tradition. Reese Witherspoon’s blush-pink gown from her 2011 wedding increased the sales of pastel-hued wedding dresses in some of the US’s established bridal boutiques; while on the runway, Adut Akech closed the Chanel fall 18 couture show in a mint-green two-piece tweed suit. Now, 180 years after Queen Victoria’s wedding, the time may have come to bring some color back to the big event.