Lights! Camera! Here comes the bride!
The stroll down the aisle to the altar is beginning to look like a Hollywood red carpet as brides opt for dresses befitting a starlet rather than a fairytale princess in a poufy gown.
Wedding dresses this year feature details befitting a screen siren striking a pose in front of a pack of paparazzi. Form fitting silhouettes, daring slits that show off a lot of leg, low cut backs, plunging necklines and dazzling embellishment are the camera-ready details now found on wedding gowns – signatures that are typically that found on those couture gowns favoured by actresses on Oscar night.
“There is a merging of red carpet with bridal wear,” says Veronica Di Santos, managing partner at the Toronto luxury bridal design house, Ines Di Santos.
Di Santos says with the popularity of reality shows and the opus that was the Royal Wedding has helped fuel a sense of fashion, pomp and occasion to weddings, leading brides to take a more glamorous route to matrimonial gowns.
They are looking at their big day as a big theatrical production. And why not? All the preparatory elements like the small army of helpers that it takes to get an A list star ready for an award show are there – hairstylist, makeup artist, manicurist, fashion stylist (the bridesmaids) and then there are the popping flashbulbs of cameras and a rapt audience focused on what the bride is wearing.
“It’s the bride’s big red carpet moment and they want their 15 minutes of fame,” says Di Santos.
Social media is also playing a supporting role in this desire for wanting to look like a ravishing star, rather than a demure bride hiding behind a veil.
Wedding pictures are now often immediately posted on Facebook or Twitter, opening it up to a wider audience, says Di Santos.
But this trend in wedding dresses looking like evening gowns also started with the big name bridal designers.
Bridal wear designers like Vera Wang and Monique Lhuillier have crossed over into evening wear and have become go-to designers for red carpet looks.
“Look at how many Reem Acra dresses were at the Golden Globes this weekend,” says Andrea Anastasiou, owner of the fashionable Yorkville bridal boutique, White.
The New York designer Reem Accra captured the spotlight with several dresses on starlets with one worn by none other than the mother of all fashionistas, Madonna.
Since these popular events raise the profile for these designers, it is only natural that those evening wear details have begun to cross over into their bridal designs.
Anastasiou also feels there is less sentimentality about the wedding dress today. Once, a gown to be worn just once and packed away, the boutique owner says some of her customers look for a wedding dress that can be worn on other occasions.
Gowns from designers like Jenny Packham – a British favourite of Kate Middleton’s – offers gowns with gold embroidery or beading that would make it wearable for nights on the town.
Wedding makeup artist Jackie Gideon has also noticed that the glam factor has increased when it comes to today’s brides.
“It’s like a fashion shoot!” she says, noting that they spend a fortune on makeup and photography.
To maximize usage of all the money and effort, sometimes one gown is not enough.
Gideon says she has seen an increase in the amount of brides wanting to change into several dresses through out the wedding – not unlike Kim Kardashian who wore three Vera Wang wedding dresses to her short lived but none-the-less televised nuptials.
“They want to be movie stars.”
Article source: http://www.thestar.com/living/fashion/article/1117007--brides-become-stars-as-traditional-wedding-dresses-are-dropped-for-re-carpet-glamour
