When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert on the 10th of February 1840, she chose a wedding dress that would influence bridal fashion for generations. It was made from white silk satin, with lace from Devon and a long train decorated with orange blossom. White wasn’t a new choice for brides, but Victoria’s wedding gave it an enormous amount of attention.
In my last Victorian post, we explored how Victoria and Albert’s relationship developed. On their wedding day, thousands of people lined the streets of London despite the rain, hoping to see the young couple. Victoria was just 20 years old and had been Queen for nearly three years. The ceremony took place at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace.
As a reigning monarch, Victoria could have worn her crimson velvet robes of state. Instead, she chose to dress as a bride rather than emphasise her position as Queen. Her silk came from Spitalfields in London, while the handmade Honiton lace supported lacemakers whose industry was struggling. She wore a wreath of orange blossom and a lace veil instead of a royal diadem.
Before Victoria’s wedding, brides had worn all sorts of colours, including blue, red, pink, brown and black. Some had worn white too, particularly those who could afford it. Many women simply married in their best dress, which could be worn again afterwards. A white gown was not especially practical if you needed your clothes to last.
Victoria’s wedding was widely reported, and pictures of her bridal outfit appeared in prints and publications. It wasn’t only her dress that attracted attention, but the idea of a romantic bride in white. Fashion illustrations and advertisements helped spread that image, although not everyone rushed out to copy it.
The Victoria and Albert Museum even holds a patterned wedding dress worn by Sarah Maria Wright in 1841, just a year after the royal wedding. Coloured dresses remained common, especially among women who couldn’t afford an outfit for one occasion. Over the following decades, white became increasingly fashionable, particularly among brides who could afford it.
So Victoria didn’t invent the white wedding dress. She helped make it fashionable, and the custom developed gradually from there.
Did you know brides wore such a variety of colours before white became the usual choice?
☕ Have a cuppa and let’s discover history together!
Image info:
Queen Victoria in Her Wedding Dress, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1847. Royal Collection, RCIN 400885. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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