Fashion, however, was never absent from wedding dress design. If most people could not afford the life of the royals and the nobility, they still served as an inspiration and a model to be imitated.
In fact, it was Queen Victoria, maybe the biggest fashion trendsetter of the 19th century, who was responsible for introducing the white dress into wedding culture. For her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840, she chose to wear a white silk and satin dress, making the color an overnight sensation.
Soon enough, the trend crossed the Atlantic as American etiquette books and advice columns promoted the color as the “proper hue,” connecting it to purity and virginity. The white color also fit well with the luxurious image that the elite wanted to convey, making the white dress a unique garment in a woman’s closet, only to be worn once — something that only the wealthy could afford.
Even as the rich began wearing white to their weddings, it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that the custom reached the masses. Practicality was still the rule for most people, especially in times of war and economic depression, as brides preferred going into their closets rather than to their savings for their dream weddings.
In an effort to boost the industry, magazines and department stores began to popularize the idea that the wedding day should be a “once-in-a-lifetime” event that would merit an impractical white dress. Stores like Lord & Taylor targeted well-to-do brides with their “bridal consulting services,” which provided them and their bridesmaids appropriate dresses, as well as other custom-made services.
Economic affluence followed World War II, and the idea that every bride deserved to be a “princess for one day” was democratized. An article from 1945 in The Saturday Evening Post titled “Your Daughter Gets Married Only Once,” provided advice to fathers on how to financially survive the changing norms of procuring a white dress that was good for one night. By the 1950s, bridal salons became a booming national industry that specialized in white dresses for young brides.
During the 1960s, retailers and manufacturers teamed up with the Miss America pageant to promote the “dream wedding” campaign, solidifying the formal white dress as the proper wedding attire.