Colorful weddings!
When the wedding dress can be of a thousand colors
The wedding… we dream about it as little girls, we imagine it, we wait for it for so long. Preparations, guests, location, flowers and… the dresses! Oh yes, the wedding dress… we go to the atelier, we describe the dream dress, we try on different ones, with shades of blush, ivory, rosé, silver or colored details… everything strictly starting from white!
Taking a few steps back in the history of art, brides are depicted with different dresses, of the most varied colors. Only in the most recent works, such as Chagall’s bride, is the dress white.
So, where was the purity of the brides who did not wear white dresses? The link between the color white and virginity is a recent idea, derived from religion. In reality, the affirmation of the white wedding dress is all a question of fashion!
Don’t imitate Queen Victoria!
Yes, fashion!
Although Princess Philippa of England and Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland had already married in white, in 1406 and 1558 respectively, it was Queen Victoria in 1840 who made it a real must. Victoria was also the first to forbid guests to wear a dress of the same color as the bride!
Colors of the world
While in the West the white dress is now a tradition, in the rest of the world the wedding is a little more… colorful!
Red, for example, is widely used. The color of fire and passion, a symbol of good luck, it is chosen by women in China, Iraq, Pakistan and Vietnam. Different shades of purple are used in Eritrea and Malaysia. In Ghana, even more vibrant colors are found: orange, yellow and green. In contrast to our white, in Peru, black is very popular, along with red!
And the VIPs?
Despite tradition, colorful wedding dresses are often chosen by famous people too.
For example, Elizabeth Taylor surprised everyone with a green dress for her first wedding; a choice that the newspapers linked to a supposed pregnancy. But the yellow of her second wedding was no less surprising! After all, Liz Taylor loved colors!
Princess Caroline of Monaco, after two weddings with fairly traditional colors, shocked everyone by wearing a simple light blue suit when she married her third husband!
Marilyn Monroe also got married three times, and always with very different dresses. If at her first wedding she wore a classic long white dress, for her second she chose a dark chocolate-colored suit; at her third attempt, finally, she opted for a cream-colored dress with lavender highlights.
Dita Von Teese wore a dress in decidedly dark colours, so unique that today it can be admired at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London!
Tina Turner‘s black and green dress was also very unique, paired with sheer black leggings, a look that certainly didn’t go unnoticed.
Finally, Emma Thompson didn’t want just one color for her wedding, but she preferred a very colorful dress!
Tailored for the bride
There are truly endless possibilities! In the end, however, what matters is not whether the dress is colored or traditional; each bride, when trying it on, will know which one is hers!
Whatever the color chosen, inside Villa Castiglioni Fisogni in Tradate every wedding dress will have a magnificent prominence; inside the rooms, in the greenery of its garden or, why not, among the colorful pieces of the Fisogni Museum!
Maria Schembri