Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
A wedding dress or wedding gown is clothing worn by a bride during a wedding ceremony, and its colour, style and ceremonial importance depends on the religion and culture of the participants. In modern Western tradition the colour is white — including creamy shades such as eggshell, ecru and ivory — a popularity traced to 1840 and the marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg, whose white gown was published in an official portrait photograph that brides widely copied.
A wedding dress or wedding gown is clothing worn by a bride during a wedding ceremony. Color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown depends on the religion and culture of the participants.
Western culture
In modern tradition, the color of western-culture wedding dresses is white. Used in this sense, 'white' or 'wedding white' includes creamy shades such as eggshell, ecru and ivory. The popularity of this color can be traced back to 1840 and the marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg. The Queen chose to wear a white gown for the event. The official wedding portrait photograph was widely published and many brides opted for a similar dress in honor of that choice. The tradition continues today. (See white wedding.) Prior to the Victorian era a bride was married in any color except black (the color of mourning) or red (which was connected with prostitutes). The white dress came to symbolize purity of heart and the innocence of childhood. Later attribution suggested that the color white symbolized virginity.
The term Bridal Gown originates from the word al which means party combined with bride is Bridal i.e. "Brides Party Gown". Originally in the Middle Ages wedding parties were simply called Bride-al's. A bridal train is the part of the wedding dress that trails behind the bride, the term is derived from similar train worn by Kings & Queens, which themselves are derived from seeing a Peacock, which were used as royal birds.
Eastern Culture
Many wedding dresses in China are colored red, the traditional color of good luck. In modern Chinese weddings, particularly in Western countries, the bride usually opts for the white Western dress or changes from a red gown to a white gown later in the day.
Also in India the traditional color of female wedding garments is red. With Indians in Western countries, the bride often wears the red sari at the wedding ceremony and changes into white for the reception after.
Learn more about bridal fashion in our women's clothing guide section.
Ceremonial Clothing Definition
Evening Dress (White Tie)
| Veil Definition |
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wedding_gown). 11/2/04 Modified by Apparel Search. |
The white gown and the red gown answer the same question — what should a bride's dress declare? — in two colour languages. White, as the Western tradition developed it, speaks of purity, innocence and a dress made for one day only. Red in Chinese and Indian tradition speaks of luck, joy and prosperity: the most celebratory colour in the palette, worn precisely because the day is an auspicious one. Neither tradition is more natural than the other; both are conventions, and the increasingly common pattern of wearing red for the ceremony and white for the reception is a practical bilingualism between family tradition and the surrounding culture.
The vocabulary of the gown preserves its history. Bridal comes from bride-ale, the wedding party itself, and the train descends from the trailing robes of kings and queens — themselves said to echo the peacock, the royal bird. Even the modern phrase wedding white concedes that the colour is a range, not a swatch: eggshell, ecru and ivory all count, chosen to flatter the wearer under ceremony light.
A wedding gown is built differently from other formal dresses because its job includes stored transport, hours of standing, photography and preservation afterwards. That is why bridal retail has its own practices — fittings across months, specialist cleaning and boxed storage for keeping the gown after the day — and why the veil, garter and train are sold and handled as part of one outfit. The companion wedding dress page covers the Western historical line in more depth; this page's Eastern sections are the reminder that the white gown is one tradition among several, not a universal rule.
The popularity of white traces to Queen Victoria's marriage to Albert of Saxe-Coburg in 1840, when she wore a white gown and the official portrait photograph was widely published. Before the Victorian era, brides married in any colour except black or red; white came to symbolise purity of heart and the innocence of childhood.
The term bridal gown originates from the word al, meaning party, combined with bride — bridal is the bride's party gown. In the Middle Ages wedding parties were simply called bride-ales.
Many wedding dresses in China are red, the traditional colour of good luck, and in India the traditional colour of female wedding garments is also red. Brides in Western countries often wear the red gown or sari for the ceremony and change into a white gown for the reception.