Nowhere is it more obvious than in fashion that royal weddings have adapted and preserved old customs while preserving the social and cultural atmosphere of the time.
Women associated with the king have a wealth of frocks, from lavish massive gowns to art-deco embroidered frocks, while generations of aristocratic men have wed in military uniform or morning attire.
Although the bridesmaids’ dresses have always been the main focus of the fashion-minded royal watcher’s attention in these times, they have frequently played an important role in the development of royal fashion history.
These, Newsweek, takes a look at five imperial bridesmaids gowns that created lasting style effect.
First Royal Commission
One of Britain’s most well-known clothing designers was introduced to the royal family at the wedding of King George V’s brother, Prince Henry the Duke of Gloucester, at the ceremony.
Lady Alice commissioned Norman Hartnell, a London designer, to make her wedding dress and those of her bridesmaids, one of whom was to be her new niece, Princess Elizabeth of York ( later ).
Hartnell was the first fashion designer to receive a knight.
Postwar Glamour
Norman Hartnell received the payment for her wedding dress and the girls’ gowns when Queen Elizabeth II, a lady, wed Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in 1947.
For the models, Hartnell took ideas from art history, basing the embroidery designs used throughout on Sandro Botticelli’s “La Primavera” decoration.
The bridesmaids wore lace gowns with stars embroidered on swags with small shoulder capelets during a time when clothing rationing was still in place after World War II.
One of Elizabeth’s brides was a friend named Lady Elizabeth Lambart. In July 2024, in London where it reached a hammer price of £37, 800 (around $48, 200).
80s Excess
When married ( when still Prince of Wales ) in 1981, the marriage became a.
Diana chose Elizabeth and David Emanuel, two younger emerging designers, over the traditional fashion houses that older generations of the royals loved for their wedding dresses, for the payment of her attire.
Diana’s gown had a huge puffed waist, a strongly outlined waist, and voluminous shoulders. The princess’ train was 25-feet longer, the longest of any royal marriage dress.
For the girls, the Emanuels did not spare with the decorations. They had full skirts and puffed sleeves, layers of fabric trimming and ruffles throughout, and were an echo of Diana’s clothing. The skirts had flowering headdresses and pale yellow scarves around the neck.
Stealing the Show
There were a number of memorable moments in the royal wedding of April 2011 including the moment the newlywed lady left her vehicles at Westminster Abbey with her sister Pippa Middleton.
The artist Sarah Burton, who was at the moment the artistic director of the London-based Alexander McQueen style house, styled both sisters and the group of young bridesmaids.
Pippa, whose figure-hugging dress featured in media coverage all over the world, received a surprising amount of attention while Kate’s costume was fawned over in the style press.
Middleton claimed that the increased silhouette in the gown was unexpected after numerous commentators and social media users pointed out it.
“I don’t believe the intention was to make it a significant dress. Actually just to kind of blend in with the train”, she told in 2014, per Vogue. “I suppose it’s attractive, embarrassing, positively. It was n’t planned”.
Questionable Choice
The girls ‘ wedding attire is likely to be associated with and will probably remain so in royal history.
Meghan and Harry and Meghan got married in May 2018, according to reports in the English press that Meghan had allegedly caused Kate to cry during a fight over the wedding dress.
Harry claimed that Kate caused her to weep in 2021, and in 2023, he claimed that his partner had made the same claim.
The tears, according to Harry, were over Kate’s insistence that Charlotte’s dress did n’t fit her and needed to be remade with four days left until the wedding day. Harry and Meghan’s comments and the story have n’t yet been publicly addressed by Kensington Palace.
For the first time in more than a century, the bridesmaids’ dresses were not created by a British fashion designer, which makes them significant. They also have another significance at the Sussex wedding.
Meghan chose to create her bridesmaid dresses and haute couture bridal gowns.
