How wedding dresses have evolved over the last 100 years (2024)

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In the 1910s, brides wore loose dresses.

In the 1910s, manybrides wore floor-length, floatydresses in which they could move more easily. As Bridal Guide points out, dancing at weddings became customduring this era, with dances like the turkey trotcoming into fashion.

Wedding gowns in the 1920s were more sophisticated, flapper-style dresses.

Bridal fashion was hugely influenced by the flapper style of dress that was popular at the time. Many brides opted for a white dress with ahigh scoop neckline, a straight, slim fit, and a lowwaist. And don't forget alacy, romanticveil.

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Brides in the 1930s kept it simple in silk or rayon dresses.

Wedding dresseswere typically simpleinthe 1930s, with figure-skimming silhouettes, high necklines, and long sleeves.

"Thinking of my mother's dress, and she got married in the '30s, she didn't have a ball gown," Urshel said. "It was kind of like a more slim, silk dress."

Brides who couldn't afford silkwould wearrayondresses to achieve a similarlook, according to Refinery29.

In the 1940s, high-neck, long-sleeved gowns stayed in fashion.

Bridal fashion that was popular in the 1930s didn't change all that much in the 1940s, with many brides wearing the same kind of slim-fit dresses with high necklines and long sleeves.

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In the 1950s, ball gowns were everywhere.

Ball gowns with huge skirts dominated bridal fashion in the '50s.

Back then, "abridal dress was a bridal dress‚and it did not cross over the line," Urshel said. "It also meant that many girls, even if they normally wore simple sportswear clothes, when it came to bridal they became very fussy."

Urshel mentioned Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress — which she said Kennedy "hated" and was "made like a lampshade" — as an example of the kind of style that was trendy at the time.

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Strapless styles also started coming into fashion in the '50s.

The straplesstrend also came into fashionin the '50sas a reaction to the high-neck, long-sleeved dressesthat came before that era, Urshel said.

However,not all brides were ready to ditch sleeves just yet."It started in a very small way," shesaid, "because it was still considered kind of risque."

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Dresses got slimmer again in the 1960s.

After the voluminous ballgowns of the '50s, brides began wearing slimmer-fitted "column" dresses.

Some brides opted for gowns that were in-between the ball gown and the column dress. "I remember seeing some dresses that were not quite ball gowns, but they were slim, made out of heavy charmeuse," Urshel said.

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Some dresses got shorter — and mutton sleeves became fashionable.

Some brides raised the hems of their wedding dresses in accordance with the riseof the mini skirt.

Mutton sleeves were also in fashion, andplenty of long-sleeved dresses featured puffy elbows, coupled with high necklines.

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Sleeves got even bigger in the 1970s.

WhenDior debuted a high-neck dress with "big sleeves with a puff at the elbow" inthe 1970s, brides went wild for the trend.

Brides ditched sleeves for strapless dresses in the 1980s.

"It became the major thing," Urshel said. "By the 1980s, it was very difficult to buy anything that wasn't strapless."

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Tighter dresses were also in vogue —especially in the late '80s.

Close-fittingdresses, often with a puffy shoulder sleeve, became increasingly popular bythe late 1980s.

"In the '80s, even at Kleinfeld's, we started buying some dresses that were slimmer, that we were selling almost every day," Urshel said. "After that, we even had a whole section of slim dresses."

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In the '90s, brides were into sleeves again.

"Right aroundthe '90s, people start asking for sleeves," Urshel said. "They were getting really tired of strapless."

The 1990s also saw the introduction of a more modern, flirty silhouette from the American designer Lazaro. The tight-fittingdress "looked like kind of a tango dress," and featuredan assymetrical ruffle.

"I don't think he even knew that he was onto a silhouette that now is just the main silhouette in the whole store," Urshel said of Lazaro.

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By the 2000s, tighter A-line wedding dresses became trendy.

"By the year 2000, you start getting a little more diversification, so in addition to the long flowing gowns you also had some more tighter dresses," Urshel said.

She also identified A-line dresses, often with embroidery, as a big trend at the time.

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In the 2010s, sleeves made a royal return.

Just as brideshad pretty much forgotten about sleeves,"lo and behold there was the wedding of Kate Middleton, and she had long sleeves."

Urshel creditsthe return of sleeves in the 2010s to the duch*ess of Cambridge'sSarah Burton dress. She said that Kleinfeld even made a replica version of the dress, and though customersinitially showed littleinterest in it, the storeredesigned it four years later, and it was a best-seller. "With bridal, it takes a while" for trends to take hold, she said.

Now, brides feel comfortable to wear a range of sleeves. "What's interesting right now is that there are short sleeves, there are long sleeves, and there are blouson sleeves," Urshel said.

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Barely-there dresses with see-through detailing are also huge in bridal fashion.

"There's a lot of netting, a lot of sexy see-throughs everywhere," Urshel said of today's bridal fashion. "Some of them are quite risqué," with some dresses revealing skin around the midriff and the whole back.

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Today, brides often wear wedding dresses that suit their personalities.

Urshel noted that the gap between everyday fashion and bridal fashion has started closing in recent years, with wedding dress styles becoming much more varied. Brides have started caring more about how their dresses reflects their individual personalities, she said.

"There are so many choices right now," she said. "When I go through the alterations department, it's just so incredibly exciting to see every girl's dress is something totally, totally different."

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