And we mention all this talk of the past because we thought you might be interested in incorporating history into some of the most important events in your life, such as your wedding, perhaps? has an excellent selection of Medieval wedding dresses that you can choose from for your Medieval themed wedding.

Also, a booming business in wedding dresses emerged at this time.Medieval Wedding Dresses: For the Fan of HistoryAre you the kind of person who loves history? Do you find yourself interested in events that happened in the past almost more than the present? Does it excite you to learn how people lived in different time periods? Is your television set always tuned to the History Channel? You are not alone! Learning about our past is an excellent way to help us prepare for our future. However, during the Depression Period, brides went back to wearing their non-white dresses at their wedding until the post-war decades where white became fashionable again. Mass production and fashion styles that required less fabric enabled many American and European brides to afford white dresses for their big day. The Victorian Era dresses were off-white compared to the true white wedding gowns of the early twentieth century. However, many dresses were still of different colors with elaborate patterns, while white was for the well-to-do who could afford to clean their dresses. The industrial revolution also brought down the cost of fabrics which enabled many women to afford a specially made dress for their wedding day. Prior to this, brides across Europe and America favored blue dresses that symbolized purity, while white was associated with wealth.Īlthough Queen Victoria’s unique bridal gown firmly established the white bridal dress, it also set a fashion trend where brides gradually moved from the evening gown style dress with open necklines and short sleeves to high-necked long-sleeved gowns. A few years earlier, Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain wore matching white wedding outfits with gold embroidery, which set a new trend of wearing matching outfits.įast forward to the nineteenth century, and Queen Victoria gets married to Prince Albert of Saxe in a white wedding dress with Honiton Lace trimming. Mary, Queen of Scots, wore a lily white wedding dress with expensive jewelry when she married Francis II because it was her favorite color.

On the other hand, the royal class had more flexibility and means to wear white. The women also avoided wearing white clothes because they were difficult to clean and, therefore, not practical. However, most women could not afford a separate dress for their big day, and the wedding dress was often their best dress, typically made of flax, cotton, or wool. Red-colored textiles satin, Coudray, and velvet were favored in this era because red was associated with wealth, while pearls signified chastity. The sixteenth-century dresses maintained the same structure with a tight corset upper and layers of fabric making up the ball gown, which extended downwards into a train. The wedding gowns were long and layered with the fifteenth-century upper-class women often wearing up to three layers over the main dress. The lower classes copied the fashion with cheaper fabrics. Weddings in the Renaissance Era highlighted overt displays of wealth by the aristocracy with lavish festivities and elaborate and colorful wedding dresses.

Medieval wedding dress history