A History of the White Wedding Dress

Purity & Virginity

One of the major falsities of the idea of the white wedding dress is that the color white indicates some sort of purity or virginity. Some people try to make the color of the wedding dress important in regards to religious or sexual purity. This has not always been the case. In the past, women wore dresses that were practical and could be worn again. There was a poem that “assisted” young ladies in choosing wedding dress colors:

“Married in white, you will have chosen all right. Married in grey , you will go far away. Married in black, you will wish yourself back. Married in red, you’ll wish yourself dead. Married in blue, you will always be true. Married in pearl, you’ll live in a whirl. Married in green, ashamed to be seen, Married in yellow, ashamed of the fellow. Married in brown, you’ll live out of town. Married in pink, your spirits will sink.”

From this poem, we can see that white, grey, blue, brown, and pearl were all considered acceptable colors while having different meanings. Never once was it indicated that the wearing of white meant that the wearer was pure. In fact, blue was the chosen color of purity (due to its Biblical references) while white indicated joy. Blue was a quite popular wedding dress color for many years.

There is also a decided “creep factor” in supposedly announcing to the entire world a woman’s sexual experience or lack thereof. The man is not required announced his sexual experience publicly. If we really wanted to make a public service announcement about the status of the bride’s virginity, why not just hang a sign around her neck? It seems it would be much easier and less controversial.

Traditional Wedding Dress Color

Another reason people give to the white wedding dress is that it is and always has been the traditional color of wedding dresses. This is also false.

I always thought it was because Queen Victoria wore white and then it just kind of stuck.... :-)

I thought it was Queen Victoria that started the white trend?

I was always told Queen Victoria too.

In the past, women have worn dresses that could be easily altered to be worn again. This typically included colors that were not white. Philippa of England, Queen of Denmark, Sweden and Norway from 1406 to 1430, was the very first documented woman to wear white on her wedding day. Both previous and after Philippa would wear dresses that were easier to clean and re-wear. White was worn again as a wedding dress by Anne of Brittany in 1499 for her marriage to the French King Luis XII. Even though white had been worn by a few royals, it was not a typical wedding dress color.

In 1840, white became a popular wedding dress color after the marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg. She wore a white wedding dress so that she could incorporate some expensive handmade lace she owned, as well as to show how fabulously rich she was (she would never wear the dress again, a huge waste during the time period).

It was! Check it out: http://www.fromtimespast.com/wedding.htm

The official photograph of the wedding was widely circulated, thus many other brides who were rich enough to afford a white dress during this time period wore white dresses in honor of the Queen.

After 1840, white became a staple color for wedding dresses, especially by the 1890’s and the arrival of the department store. Now the white wedding dress could be afforded by more than just the noble rich. In 1890, Ladies Home Journal wrote: “That from times immemorial the bride’s gown has been white.” White stayed a popular wedding dress color choice until the start of World War I in 1914. During this time most women wore much more practical dresses – whatever their best dress was at the time.

In 1920, Coco Channel introduced the short (knee length) white wedding dress – and so white seemed to become a part of the culture of weddings.

The Depression after WWI and then the following WWII made the white wedding dress simply a dream for the majority of women.

In the 1950’s the world got a lot smaller – there were over 10 million TV sets in the United States alone. People across the world were able to watch royalty and movie stars get married in elaborate white dresses, so the tradition of the white wedding dress for everyone was born.

Today, brides are slowly throwing off society’s pressure to constrain their imagination. Weddings are becoming more “offbeat” and individual. No longer are traditional weddings and wedding dresses the norm. If a bride wants to wear white, no longer do we try to figure out if she is “eligible” for the color based on her sexual experience. Brides are wearing colors – by personal choice – again, and while white is still an option it is no longer the only option.

More color dresses

And more

Queen Victoria was the reason it became "popular" but she was not the first person to wear a white dress.

I have heard so much BS about wearing white it made me do some research. THis is for a blog post I'm working on. Any edits would be helpful and appreciated...

I heard that 'originally' wearing white was a sign of wealth. Most women wore their best dress to be married in and most common folk didn't have white clothes because they got dirty to quickly and weren't practical. So only a wealthy person would own a dress they couldn't wear regularly, so wearing white was a sign of wealth.

Does it strike anyone else that the history of wedding dresses has been a story of the fashion industry winning out over ordinary women? In the beginning, the wedding dress was just the woman's "best dress." Then the fashion became for it to be white--a color available primarily to the rich, because a white dress showed every spot of dirt, and was impractical for daily wear. At this point, a) every woman is expected to wear a white dress, even if she is not rich, and b) wedding dresses (white or colored) are made in such obvious "wedding" styles (e.g., with a train, and with the bodice so fitted that it typically requires alteration for any woman wearing it) that they are totally impractical for ever wearing again. And that this expectation, even though we think of it as "traditional," has really applied only since the end of World War II.

@nd Bride - that is very true! That is something else I should have mentioned in my blog post. Up until the end of WWII wedding dresses were always in the style of the day. All it took was a little dye and/or changing of trim (ribbons, etc) and the dress was wearable again.

After WWII, wedding dresses stayed in more of a Victorian style that is impractical for re-use.

@2nd Bride: How do you think I could incorporate some info about fashion into a blog about color?

Wow they are totally blacking out most of the images on here!!! Arrgh.

But that last purple dress is hauteness.

Lol@ Tee. Want me to email them to you?

Bump