28/10/2015
The tradition of a white wedding dress is commonly credited to Queen Victoria's choice to wear a white court dress at her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840.[1][2] Debutantes had long been required to wear white court dresses for their first presentation at court, at a "Drawing Room" where they were introduced to the queen for the first time.[1]
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on their return from the marriage service at St James's Palace, London, 10 February 1840.
Royal brides before Victoria did not typically wear white, instead choosing "heavy brocaded gowns embroidered with white and silver thread," with red being a particularly popular colour in Western Europe more generally.[1] European and American brides had been wearing a plethora of colours, including blue, yellow, and practical colours like black, brown, or gray. As accounts of Victoria's wedding spread across the Atlantic and throughout Europe, elites followed her lead.
Worldwide, the color white has been associated with weddings and other significant life or spiritual events for millennia. In ancient Greek, white was the color of bridal joy, and brides not only wore white dresses and white flowers, but they also painted their bodies white.[3] In China, it was the color of purity and perfection, and thus uniquely suitable as a color associated with death, which they saw as the time when the deceased person moved towards ultimate perfection.[3] In ancient Japan, white was also the color of purity and innocence.[3] In Africa, the color white is associated with deities and worship.[3] In the Christian tradition, white clothes were worn at the time of baptism to represent spiritual purity and the washing away of sins.[3]