Say Yes to the Dress: White=Purity

[PennySycamore]

To get back to Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta, Monte said about the daddies wanting their daughters in pure white that they'd want not just a white dress, but one with long sleeves, high collars and probably a chastity belt underneath. My daughter and I were watching and that cracked us up.

The bride on Four Weddings that had her mom put a red sash on her dress was a lesbian and, I think, Latino also. Btw, the brides made their wedding cake. It looked lovely.

Anyone remember Miranda on Sex and the City shopping for her wedding dress when she and Steve were getting married? She told the bridal consultant to not bring her anything white as that ship had sailed and that she had a child.

[DarkAnts]

I think that wool is an everyday fiber. A light weight wool is great in the summer time for wicking sweat away from the body. I tried to dye with cochineal. I am too creeped out by the bugs. I dont do much natural dyeing. I tried natural yellow dying with turmeric because its my aunts favorite color. I wanted to make her a nice scarf the year she moved from LA to Salt Lake City. It was in the winter and I could not afford Saffron.

I find colors fascinating. Different cultures used them differently. In India, a bride wears red and white is reserved for mourning. White was also used for mourning in Medieval europe.

[saraelise]

Up until the late 19th century it was very common for middle class (upper and lower) to wear black on their wedding day in Northern Europe. The logic was that you would have a good church dress that would last you for years and years after the wedding. Unless, of course, you lived in the country where you would commonly wear the traditional folk costume for festive days. I believe that's still pretty common in Norway.

[Soldevi]

Someone mentioned high collars, long sleeves etc. "Modesty" is uprising trend now in fashion. If you look red carpets photos, movie stars and such wear long sleeves and high collars nowadays. Well...clothes are usually skin hugging but they cover much more skin than earlier. In Golden Globe Awards there were many many dresses like this. Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Leighton Meester and Emma Stone comes in mind.

But, I agree it shouldn't be a parent's decision what bride wears. I certainly wasn't a virgin in my weddings but my choice of non-white color had nothing to do with it. I look terrible in most white tones because of my Nordic paleness. No veil, no crown. I had fresh flowers in my hair. My hubby wanted me to wear oh-so-typical puffy white dress, something we call here creamcake dress, but he just had to dream on ;)

But I understand this mindset about purity. There are some "rules" in Finland, too, about purity/virginity. People usually resent if someone in her second+ weddings wear white color. A veil and a crown are symbols of virginity, too, not just white color. I am more "appalled" about that etiquette error where a bride wears both veil and crown. You should just pick one of them ;)

Me? I couldn't care less :) I love vibrant colors in wedding dresses. People wore black dress in their wedding day still in the 20th century. But in some point brides started to wear white veils even if their dress was black. Black was one of my options too, but I would have boiled in it. My wedding day was the hottest day in that summer. I made my dress myself so I was able to change the color quickly :)

[GeoBQn]

This reminds me of a scene on The Critic where Jay Sherman's sister Margo is having a fitting for her debutante dress. The dress maker tells her that dress makers have a "strict code of ethics" and that she can either wear white-white ("virginal white") or an off-white ("hussy white").

Dress Maker: So, white-white?

Margo: Yes . . . except for the gloves.

[lilah]

I was just watching an episode where a bride was bragging about how she'd "earned her white" or some stupid bs.

Ladies please do not equate your personal value to the status of a piece of skin in your genitals. FFS.

[clarinetpower]

Of course, you can always go the MrsSmuggar route and wear a striped polo shirt with a veil. :roll:

My mom was also a virgin to her wedding night, of which she was very proud (because she was quite a partier, and everyone thought different.) She got quite upset with me for choosing ivory because "people will think you're not a virgin!" My answer was, "I'm not. I live with my fiancé, duh, Mom. And white washes me out." She didn't like it, but she couldn't fight it.

Turned out she kind of got her wish, because I dressed my attendants in ivory, too (the only pale colors that season were ivory or mustard. Yuck. I got married outdoors in June--didn't want burgundy, navy or forest green, TYVM.) My ivory was lighter than their ivory, so it sort of looked whiter. Whatever.

She also said, "how will they know which one is the bride?" Um, the veil? The lace and beading? Walking in last on the arm of my dad? THEY KNOW ME???

She was very weird about wedding stuff. She also panicked about pew bows, the lack of a punch fountain, not having a cake topper, and a myriad of other things, including how to get the organ outdoors. (Ha! I'm a musician! I have musician friends!!!) She wanted her wedding again, I think.

[desertvixen]

Yeah, she was pudgy as she got older, but have you seen some of the younger pictures?

She wasn't ever skinny, but but she looked pretty good. If I was going to be painted by someone, I'd want it to be Winterhalter - his paintings make all the women look gorgeous.

The white dress thing was also partly because she was the first royal in a while to get married, and they had something of a rising middle class that could follow her style.

However, also in keeping with this board, she made a more important contribution to women (despite being very anti-women's suffrage): making it acceptable to use some sort of pain relief (in her case, ether) in childbirth. I want to say #6 or #7 of hers.

[Wolfie]

I think that wool is an everyday fiber. A light weight wool is great in the summer time for wicking sweat away from the body. I tried to dye with cochineal. I am too creeped out by the bugs. I dont do much natural dyeing. I tried natural yellow dying with turmeric because its my aunts favorite color. I wanted to make her a nice scarf the year she moved from LA to Salt Lake City. It was in the winter and I could not afford Saffron.

I find colors fascinating. Different cultures used them differently. In India, a bride wears red and white is reserved for mourning. White was also used for mourning in Medieval europe.

I wish we could more easily find the types of wools that were available 150 years ago. But due to various things, it is hard. I have been able to find a few things that are similar for dresses (a printed Challis wool/cotton, that is nearly identical to a dress I've eyed online, and a wool/linen crepe that is not the heavy things that we usually associate with crepes, it's actually semi sheer.)

My SIL wore a western style wedding dress for part of her wedding, then for the reception changed into a traditional Korean kimono.

[Maul the Koala]

My SIL wore a western style wedding dress for part of her wedding, then for the reception changed into a traditional Korean kimono.

I always wonder how these white=purity people deal with cultures that don't have white as the norm. All those brides must be harlots!