Who will make the royal wedding dress for Kate Middleton when she marries Prince William?
Well the answer is a royally guarded secret but after the 29th of April we will all – or at least an estimated 2 billion people worldwide – have seen it and the secret will be out. The dress design is expected to shape the style of wedding dresses for many years to come, just as William’s mother Lady Diana Spencer’s did when she married Prince Charles.
Everyone is sure that Kate will be flying the flag for Britain with a British designer and the designers Bruce Oldfield and Phillipa Lepley are hotly tipped as favourites.
Also hotly tipped is that the dress will be white. It is, after all, one of the most cherished wedding traditions in Britain and is historically credited to a previous Monarch – Queen Victoria – as starting the tradition.
Prior to 1840 brides would typically wear their best dress for the occasion of their wedding and this would usually be in their favourite colour. Most brides of the time would wear the dress on many occasions, not just on the wedding day.
But when Queen Victoria wore a silk satin dress, with a Honiton lace veil and orange blossoms in her hair to marry Prince Albert in 1840, things changed. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing and with a growth of a ‘middle class’ with an increase in wealth, wedding dresses began to be specifically for the ceremony and nothing else. We were seeing more of the population that were able to do that.
White started to get more and more popular but after World War I it became the predominant bridal colour.
Queen Victoria really wasn’t the first bride to wear white on her wedding day. But she is the one credited with starting this most followed of bridal traditions.
Follow the William and Kate Royal Wedding Tour either before or after the Royal Wedding.
See the other British Tour Plans to combine with the Royal Wedding – quite a range of self-drive tours of Britain.
Visit William and Kate Royal Wedding for more information.
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