Wedding Couture
In honor of Friday's Royal Wedding between Prince William and Catherine "Kate" Middleton, I have decided to do a posting on all the wonderful Royal Weddings of the past and, of course, what they wore! I hope you enjoy seeing all the wonderful ensembles as much as I did...plus I included a little Couture Dish!
Grace of Monaco: Helen Rose
Prince Rainer and Grace of Monaco--in a
Helen Rose (an
MGM Costume Designer) gown.
Edith Head--Hollywood Costume Designer for the A-List of the time (and of Kelly) was reportedly saddened to not have been picked, for this once-in-a-lifetime occasion.
COUTURE DISH: The gown was worked on by six seamstress at MGM and 30 million people around the world watched it. The gown has remained THE SYMBOL--and ruler-- of what a "Royal Wedding Gown" should be. Elegant, timeless, classic, serene, and above all, royal. Guests of the wedding included actresses
Gloria Swanson and
Eva Gardner, the
Agha Khan, and many others.
Princess Caroline: Christian Dior Haute Couture by Marc BohanTheir eldest daughter,
Princess Caroline wore
Christian Dior Haute Couture by then House Designer,
Marc Bohan, when she married Commoner--and French Playboy--
Philipe Junot, in 1978. The gown featured a high neck, scalloped edge embroidered gown, bishop sleeves and blouson top. I especially remember (I was VERY YOUNG!) how modern she looked with ringlets of flowers--a la Princess Leia--in her hair--as opposed to wearing a tiara or crown.
Queen Elizabeth: Norman Hartnell
Queen Elizabeth (then Princess Elizabeth of York)
and Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh (then Prince of Greece and Denmark--he's actually German and Danish but born in Greece). Her wedding gown was designed by British designer
Norman Hartnell.
COUTURE DISH: The Queen Mother had specifically asked that Hartnell should use an unusually rich, lustrous stiff satin which was made at Lullington Castle. The satin was ideal for the train, but Hartnell thought that the dress required a more supple material of a similar tone. He ordered the similar fabric from the Scottish firm of Winterthur. Difficulties arose when rivals put about the rumor that the Scottish satin was made from "enemy silk worms", either from Italy or possibly Japan. A telephone call to the town where Winterthur was based, settled the scandal. Mr. Hartnell was assured the silk worms were from Nationalist China and were not "enemy silk worms". Good to know...
Princess Diana: Elizabeth Emanuel
Continuing with the Brits: Prince Charles and Diana in 1981: Her gown was designed by British designer
Elizabeth Emanuel is iconic, of course, especially for its infamous 25 foot (wrinkled) silk taffeta train.
COUTURE DISH: The entire gown--including the train and veil--were comprised of (wait for it), 275 total yards. The gown epitomized the excess that were to be the 80's.
Princess Anne: Maureen Baker Another gown I loved was the one
Princess Anne (only daughter of Queen Elizabeth) wore when she wed then-Lieutenant
Mark Phillips (he was soooo handsome!!) in 1973. The gown was inspired from the Medieval and Tudor styles. It was very
"Lady Macbeth Gets Married".
The gown--designed by
Maureen Baker, head designer for
Susan Small--featured Trumpet sleeves that hid inner Bishop Sleeves (FIERCE!), as you can see above.
COUTURE DISH: Fifteen women worked on the dress and each worked on a different section, and they didn't know what the final outcome would look like--this was done for fear that the design would be "leaked" to the press by one of these girls.
Wallis Simpson: MainbocherOf course, when speaking of Wedding Couture, we can't leave out the
Mainbocher gown worn by
Wallis Simpson when she married Edward, Duke of Windsor (also Prince Edward, King Edward XIII of course) in 1937. This pale blue gown and hat--have gone down in history as the epitome of understated chic. The groom wore a Morning Suit, of course. There were only sixteen guests, not one a member of the royal family.
Princess Margaret: Norman HartnellThen , there was the Fashionista and "Party Girl"
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (Queen Elizabeth's sister) and her wedding to
Anthony Armstrong-Jones. Her gown was designed and created by the house of
Norman Hartnell--same designer who created her sister's wedding gown
.This was also the first royal wedding ever televised, and was watched by over 300 million viewers worldwide!
Empress/Shahbanu Soraya of Iran: Christian Dior by Yves Saint LaurentI also absolutely LOVE the wedding gown worn by
Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari (of German-Persian descent) , who would become
Empress and Shahbanu Soraya of Iran when she married the
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (his second marriage) in 1951. She wore a a custom gown designed by
Yves Saint Laurent for the House of
Christian Dior.
COUTURE DISH: The gown was a silver lame gown studded with pearls and marabou stork feathers (!). To finish the gown, there was a cropped shawl-collar jacket AND a full-length white mink cape which she removed for "let-me-sit-down-and-breathe" photos. Poor Soraya (who was rumored to always have been the Shah's love of his life) soon discovered she could not give him a male heir (she was infertile) and therefore, divorced seven years after their wedding, but was left with a nice you-can-live-forever-in-style bank account.
Queen Sofia of Spain: Jean DessèsNext of note was
Queen Sofia's (then Princess Sophia of Greece) Wedding Gown--designed by Egyptian-born of Greek descent fashion designer
Jean Dessès--when she married the future
King of Spain Juan Carlos in Athens Greece to much fanfare.
Marie Chantal of Greece: Valentino Haute CoutureSpeaking of Greeks, here's
Crown Prince Pavlos and his bride,
Marie Chantal Miller. Marie Chantal is of US-Ecuadorian ancestry and Pavlos, the son of the exiled
King of the Hellenes (Greece),
Constantine II, is well, of Danish-German (and not so much Greek) descent.
Constantine II is
Queen Sofia's (see previous wedding gown pic) brother--yes, keep up!! By the way, the Bride's gown was from
Valentino Haute Couture. Don't mess with them darlings!
Maria y Carmen Martinez-Bordiu: Cristobal BalenciagaNow onto another fabulous Royal Wedding Gown of note. This gown is from
Maria y Carmen Martinez-Bordiu y Franco when she wed Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cadiz and Grandson of King Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1972. General Franco made him
Duke of Anjou and making him a Royal Highness, thereby making her a Princess:
Can you say "At-a Girl!" in Spanish?? Momma didn't raise a fool!
COUTURE DISH: Her gown was designed by
Cristobal Balenciaga. The Spanish Couturier ended his business in 1968 but came out of "retirement" to design her gown. It featured
14 meters of Abraham silk, 20 silk thread spools, 10,000 pearls, and over 5,000 sequins. It also had the Bourbon
"Fleur-de-lis" embroidered into the front of this one-of-a-kind
Haute Couture hand-made gown.
The future
Queen Noor of Jordan's wedding dress is notable for it's elegant simplicity. It was a blouson gown, with no crinoline, no petticoat, no tulle. This is how you do "restrained" and unfussy, but still beautiful.
Queen Rania of Jordan: Bruce Oldfield At the opposite end, was
Queen Rania of Jordan's wedding gown to
King Abdullah II. Her gown was designed by British designer
Bruce Oldfield (a name that has been thrown around as a possible candidate for
Catherine Middleton's wedding dress designer) and not by a Middle Eastern designer, which was odd.
Princess Maxima of the Netherlands: Valentino Haute CoutureMoving on to the New Generation of Royals--and their Wedding COUTURE: A
gorgeous Valentino Haute Couture creation can be seen on
Princes Maxima of the Netherlands when she wed Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, and heir apparent to the throne of the Netherlands.
Maxima is from Argentina darlings, in case you weren't aware.
South American girl done did good, as they say...The Netherlands will have an South American-born Queen sometime in the future.
Princess Mette-Marit of Norway: Ove Harder FinsethStaying in Scandinavia: There was the wedding gown of
Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway.
Ove Harder Finseth was the designer. I loved this gown for its elegant simplicity. The shape was perfect for Mette-Marit's lean figure and again, as one of the "Next Generation Royals",
I love that she chose to do without the Disneyland Princess Crinoline-and-Petticoat Ball Gown "Princes Diana" silhouette. Norwegians know how to give you "Directional Modern Brides" for sure!
Princess Letizia of Spain: Manuel PertegazI also LOVED
Princess Letizia of Spain's wedding gown when she married
Crown Prince Felipe in 2004. It was designed by 93-year old (yes, 93!!) Spanish Designer
Manuel Pertegaz. I'm sure his "staff" had a lot to do with this and he probably sat there and said "Si!" and "No!". Letizia’s beige Valencia silk wedding dress was graceful and Medieval in its silhouette. It featured long sleeves, a decorative stand-away collar, veil and skirt embroidered with flower-de-luce and ears of wheat. Her wedding dress was 4.6 meters long!!
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden: Par EngshedenAnd last but not least in my
Royal Wedding Couture Nick Verreos Hall of Fame, I have to include the gorgeous gown worn by
Victoria Crown Princess of Sweden. The silk fit-and-flare gown was designed by Swedish designer
Par Engsheden. Simple. Elegant. Sublime. The stunning crown and lace veil finish it off.
THAT is a future Queen ladies and gentlemen.Now....Which one was your FAVORITE Royal Wedding Gown???
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