By: Cornelia Powell – Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.
If you know one thing about wedding gown history, I would wager that it has something to do with Queen Victoria beginning the bridal fashion of wearing white. (And now, thanks to her, it has been a tradition of sorts for over 175 years.) But I would also wager that most people don’t know the real reason the 20-year-old monarch chose the color white for her wedding gown, breaking the precedent set by earlier princess brides who considered it their right to be “dressed in the usual cloths of silver or gold.” Victoria even chose a crown of fanciful, yet wax orange blossoms instead of one of her dazzling diamond diadems.
Her choices have since been regarded as representing simplicity, modesty and purity—and indeed the young queen was sentimental with an “uncluttered fashion preference,” according to costume historian Kay Staniland. However, Victoria was deeply in love, and this became her guiding inspiration for her wedding attire. Therefore, with much consideration—taking into account her duty, her position and her subjects, carefully discussing her options with her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne—“the queen decided to make her marriage vows to her ‘precious Angel’ as his future wife rather than as the monarch,” wrote Edwina Ehrman, curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. So Victoria not only opted against wearing the ornate silver and gold of royalty, but also her regal “crimson velvet robe of state”—first worn at her coronation two years earlier—feeling “it would only emphasize her seniority, and overshadow the role of her future husband,” Staniland added.
Victoria’s all-white bridal costume may have been without the usual opulent royal accoutrements of silver and gold or ermine-trimmed robes, but it “was actually exquisite and of great value,” explained Maria McBride-Mellinger, author of The Wedding Dress. Underscoring “patriotic spending,” the young queen commissioned her country’s renowned textile artisans. The rich silk satin for the gown and its 18-foot court train (Victoria giving a subtle nod to her queenly status) was woven in Spitalfields; and “two hundred women in a Devon village were employed for eight months” making the beautiful, lyrically-patterned bobbin lace for her gown’s embellishments as well as her short veil. The only color Victoria wore was near her heart: a large, brilliant blue sapphire brooch which had been Prince Albert’s wedding gift to her.
On the day of the wedding, Victoria’s adoring subjects happily received their queen’s choices, cheering her carriage on its way to the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace. Dressed in these creamy shades of white and tufts of orange blossom, I doubt that Victoria had a sense of the remarkably romantic lineage she was about to inaugurate. (“Queen Victoria’s wedding and her gown inspired an era and an industry,” wrote McBride-Mellinger.) Nor could she ever know that her most queenly exemplar: “Keep your relationship top priority,” would make fine advice for today’s busy wedding-planning brides.
It seems for this young bride (who just happened to be ruler of an empire), that it came down to choosing the feelings of her future husband over her own ego. Victoria’s heart-centered choice changed bridal history and, in turn, illuminated the supreme sovereignty of a woman in love. ~
[Taken from Cornelia’s book, The End of the Fairy-Tale Bride: For Better or Worse, How Princess Diana Rescued the Great White Wedding, available at Amazon. For more about royal weddings and why we love them, see CorneliaPowell.com.]
Cornelia Powell
Wedding Folklorist, Fashion Historian, Author & Guest Speaker
Also Read:
Why Royal Weddings Matter – Part 1, “The Real Fairy Tale”
Why Royal Weddings Matter Part 2, “The Scent of Love”
Why Royal Weddings Matter Part 4, “Channel Kindness”
Why Royal Weddings Matter Part 5, “The Whiter Shade of Pale”
Why Royal Weddings Matter Part 6, “Wedding Vows”
Why Royal Weddings Matter Part 7, “Royal Wedding Redux”
Why Royal Weddings Matter Part 8, “The Language of Flowers”
Why Royal Weddings Matter Part 9, “What the Veil Reveals”
Why Royal Weddings Matter Part 10, “Tokens of Abundance”
Why Royal Weddings Matter Part 11, “The Honey Month”
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