Some Beautiful Gowns and Some Confusing Ones at Spring 2019 Bridal Fashion Week
LatestThe brief slice of time in April set aside for bridal fashion is, quite often, not that exciting. A wedding dress is a wedding dress is a wedding dress; bridal fashion is iterative. There is only so much one can do with tulle, taffeta, silk shantung, and satin before every dress starts to look the same.
I am not married and have never put a wedding dress on my body, but I am the age where I have sat through enough bridal gown appointments to feel like I have. On its own, a wedding dress is less than enthralling; what makes a dress spectacular is the person inside the dress, who is expected to glow and gleam and twinkle with love, joy, and the promise of a life spent with someone they actually really like, and maybe even love. If you’re happy when you get married, you’re going to look happy in whatever you’re wearing. The dress is merely the vessel for the expectations.
Amsale Aberra, the designer behind Amsale, died on April 1 after a battle with breast cancer. The gowns at her final show embodied the philosophy that simple is almost always better. As Robin Givhan at the Washington Post notes, Aberra’s designs were the proverbial breath of fresh air in the 1980s and ’90s, when bridal fashion tended towards tulle, big skirts, ballgowns, and riotous taffeta—Disney princess shit crossed with Dynasty’s power shoulders and dramatic flair. Aberra’s simple sheaths predated Vera Wang, who started her business in 1990, four years after Aberra started hers.