Vintage wedding dresses
Princess Beatrice joined a growing trend in making her wedding dress her ‘something old’, says
When Kate Talbot began looking for her wedding dress, she hadn’t planned on falling for one that was nearly a century old. “It was from [Sheffield designer] Kate Beaumont, who makes amazing vintage-inspired wedding dresses, though they were out of my price range,” says the primary schoolteacher, 32, from Sheffield.
“But it turned out she had a small selection of vintage ones, so I went to her studio and my dress, a Thirties gown cut on the bias, was the first that I tried on.
“I hadn’t set out to get a vintage wedding dress, but it fitted me. I tried on a few others and nothing else came close.”
Luck plays a big part in finding the perfect vintage wedding dress. While they are certainly more original and affordable than brand new ready-towear gowns, they are one-offs, so not only does the style and cut need to suit the bride in question, there’s no opportunity to try it in a size larger or smaller if it doesn’t fit.
And yet Talbot is part of an increasing number of brides choosing to walk down the aisle in their “something old”.
Designer second-hand site Vestiaire Collective saw a 56 per cent year-onyear increase in searches for wedding dresses in June, while ebay has seen 150 per cent more searches for vintage wedding dresses than it did last year.
Now demand is only set to grow, as last Friday Princess Beatrice married property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in an early Sixties Norman Hartnell gown borrowed from the Queen and altered by Her Majesty’s dresser, Angela Kelly, and go-to designer, Stewart Parvin. It was a perfectly judged choice for a ceremony in the era of Covid (and Epstein scandals): sentimental without looking twee, original but not showy, and most of all, timeless.
While we don’t all have grannies with archives of museum-worthy couture, the rising interest in preloved gowns has created an opportunity for vintage dealers.
Clare Lewis, founder of Retold Vintage, launched her edit of minimalist vintage bridal wear in
March after struggling to find her own dream vintage wedding gown. The fact that the pandemic has forced many couples to downsize their ceremonies has worked in her favour.
“I’ve had so many people write ‘I’m just rethinking the whole thing,’ or ‘I’m going to have a much smaller, more intimate gathering and I want my dress to reflect that.’ Many want to be sensitive to the environment, or don’t want to be spending a lot of
‘I think the really nice thing was that someone else had worn it before on her wedding day’
‘The buyer is going to have an emotional relationship with it that will last forever’
money on a dress,” she says. Lewis’s selection spans the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, featuring brands such as Nicole Farhi, Jil Sander and Max Mara.
“They just did tailoring and simple silhouettes so well,” she says. “They’re not your typical wedding dresses. None of my pieces have any embellishment – I don’t do beading or sequins or anything like that – they all are really, really simple.”
Meanwhile, Open For Vintage, a marketplace for luxury vintage boutiques, says Thirties and Forties gowns have been among the bestselling bridal styles over the past 18 months.
“These tend to be more bias-cut, with a silhouette that is fitted and moulded to the form,” says Colin Saunders, Open For Vintage’s CEO. “This is often balanced out by more modest necklines and longer sleeve lengths.”
Getting the fit right is critical – it’s one of the reasons Lewis offers a tailoring service for brides-to-be. It can be pricey, but it’s worth seeking out an independent tailor if you buy your dress online, or you want to wear a dress inherited from your mother or grandmother.
Even though Talbot’s gown fitted her beautifully from the start, it still needed some work. “Because it was so old, it had holes in it and there were quite a few stains,” she said. “So [Kate Beaumont] had to cut some bits off and sew up some of the holes – she just tidied it up. She also cut a bit off the train to make a belt.”
Talbot’s Thirties gown cost around £600. Even with repairs, she still spent under £1,000, making it significantly more affordable than a new dress, which can cost many thousands of pounds.
The Retold Vintage selection is also accessible, starting at £65 for a silk blouse, up to £425 for a Seventies Radley dress.
Of course, the more rare the piece, or elevated the designer, the higher the price will be – there’s a 1996 Valentino couture gown on 1stdibs for £23,000 – but for many women, price isn’t (much of) a deciding factor when it comes to choosing a vintage wedding dress. It’s more about how they feel wearing it and what it represents.
“With a dress, it’s such a special piece,” says Lewis. “The buyer is going to have a real emotional relationship with it that will last forever.”
It was likely the case for Princess Beatrice, and it was for Talbot, too. “I think the really nice thing about my dress was that someone had worn it before on her wedding day,” she says. “I actually don’t know where Kate Beaumont found it, but it almost didn’t matter. It’s an echo of the past.”