Least Favourite Royal Wedding Dress


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I think Mathilde pulled off the high collar look because she is tall.I don't think Letizia pulled it off because she is small.
 
Sadly Kate did her makeup herself big mistake. It looked kind off clownish her cheeks were too red and her eyes makeup too heavy. I think she was thinking of cameras etc but it looked bad. Her hair was not well done and I think we knew it would be down the veil was very limp. As I've said before Kate's dress lacked sparkle and I've seen it before it also did not come across well over tv. You couldn't even tell for the most part there was anything on the bottom of the dress. I know Royal brides have to have their shoulders covered but surely they can come up with something better then these coat type wedding dresses? Sophies was awful and just boring and when you look at a few of them they seem to be that way.
 
I thought Mary of Denmark's gown was an ugly mess. I didn't understand it at all. The bodice and the neckline were lovely. But the skirt?? It looked like someone slashed it with a pair of scissors.

That sums it up, IMO! It's almost treason to criticize Mary's dress in Denmark, however a couple of fashion 'journos' have had the guts to state that the skirt was a flop! It looked like a badly folded 'serviette!'

I saw a designer's sketch of the gown and it was just beautiful...I don't know why it didn't come out so well.
Either because the wrong material was chosen or because 'someone' interferred :cool:!
The Queen was somehow involved - according to herself - and maybe she got an 'idea' incompatible with design or material or both! The basic problem with the skirt was that some old DRF lace panels dating back to Princess Margaret of Connaught had to be included! They were incorporated beautifully on HM's dress in 1968 and they've been 'ok' on a couple of other occasions, however it's difficult to think up a new design whenever you make a new dress! The lace panels are sewn on and must not be cut into.
This is where the designer and 'someone' went wrong, IMO: The overlaying 'tongues' intended to contrast the underlaying lace panels came out as a disaster!

viv
 
I completely forgot to see the dress. I was looking at CP Frederik :) He was adorable :)
 
I did not like Kate wedding dress.. Pipa seemed better for me than she! I expected something more glamorous, not so closed dress!
 
Queen Anne Marie was perfect on her day minus the hair.It was strange to me but was still very beautiful.
 
Queen Noor of Jordan. The dress was okay, but she looked washed out without a touch of makeup. :bang:
 
Duchessmary, you are exactly right. Noor looked so homely and plain in her wedding photos to King Hussein that it is difficult to believe it's the same person now...she looks MUCH better now than she did when she was young, imo.

Her wedding gown was Dior(I think) but I didn't like it either. Too extreme and plain.
 
Queen Noor of Jordan. The dress was okay, but she looked washed out without a touch of makeup. :bang:

I have to say I agree with you; Queen Noor/Lisa Halaby looked like a hippie bride from the sixties or early seventies with her semi-bohemian dress and her unmade-up face; for marrying an average guy on the beach her look would have been perfect - for marrying a reigning king in sumptuous ceremony at a palace, it totally missed the mark. IMHO Noor continued to have problems with her formal "look"; she always went either too formal for the occasion or not quite formal enough. (And she said as much, herself, in her autobiography.)
 
Duchessmary, you are exactly right. Noor looked so homely and plain in her wedding photos to King Hussein that it is difficult to believe it's the same person now...she looks MUCH better now than she did when she was young, imo.

Her wedding gown was Dior(I think) but I didn't like it either. Too extreme and plain.

Noor's gown was Dior, but she asked them to make an embellished copy of an Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche dress that she already had hanging in her closet. So I don't think Dior is responsible for the failure of the gown; they did as Queen Noor asked.
 
I've seen photos of Diana's dress (in 'A Dress for Diana' by the Emanuels) on its hanger ready to go to Clarence House before the wedding, all ironed and crease-free, and it did look sooo much better than when in action on the bride herself. Not really the hallmark of a great dress though - not much point it looking good on the hanger! When put together with the veil and the mega-bouquet and the movement of a real live person inside, it was just all too much. A heavier fabric would certainly have helped, but the whole effect would still have been, 'Is there a bride in there somewhere??'

I think Letizia's dress was heading in the same direction in terms of overpowering its wearer, although to nowhere near the same extent!

The Countess of Wessex's dress was, to me, very disappointing. It seemed to sit 'above' her shoulders somehow and as various people have said, just looked too big and shapeless. She seemed to walk awkwardly in it too.

Bet hey - as long as they were all happy...!
 
Yes, that's the way that I remember Diana's dress. She was a very tall, very pretty girl and so could get away with a lot of "stuff." At the time, I thought that the bouquet was in proportion to the dress; and I really didn't notice the wrinkles because the whole thing was all so romantic. It's too bad that the designers didn't use a heavier material, but I agree with another poster who said that Diana seemed to "float" down the aisle.


Diana : I like it, for the moment of time it has been made! For a young, fairy tale girl, marrying the Prince of the most important royalty in the world. Now, times changes... it is not realistic any more!
 
I've seen photos of Diana's dress (in 'A Dress for Diana' by the Emanuels) on its hanger ready to go to Clarence House before the wedding, all ironed and crease-free, and it did look sooo much better than when in action on the bride herself. Not really the hallmark of a great dress though - not much point it looking good on the hanger! When put together with the veil and the mega-bouquet and the movement of a real live person inside, it was just all too much. A heavier fabric would certainly have helped, but the whole effect would still have been, 'Is there a bride in there somewhere??'

I think Letizia's dress was heading in the same direction in terms of overpowering its wearer, although to nowhere near the same extent!

The Countess of Wessex's dress was, to me, very disappointing. It seemed to sit 'above' her shoulders somehow and as various people have said, just looked too big and shapeless. She seemed to walk awkwardly in it too.

Bet hey - as long as they were all happy...!

I wonder if Diana would have seemed less "lost" in her wedding gown if she had stayed the healthy size she was when they designed it initially. Her waist went down nine inches from the first fitting to the final fitting; somehow I think that was part of the problem - there's only so much taking in one can do with a design before the design itself is adversely affected. There might have been better balance with the puff ball sleeves if her bodice were not so tiny and she would have looked less overwhelmed by taffeta ruffles.

However, I still loved her dress and think she was the most beautiful bride I've ever seen in my lifetime. And you made the most important point; as long as the bride is happy, that's what really counts.:flowers:
 
The same problem with the Countess of Wessex's bridal gown. By the time of the wedding, Sophie had lost a great deal of weight and it appears the dress wasn't altered much or at all to obtain a proper fit.
 
Princess Caroline of Monaco - when she married Philipe Junot
Princess Anne - when she married capt. Mark Phillips
Wallis Simpson - when she married Prince Edward
 
I think Letizia's dress was heading in the same direction in terms of overpowering its wearer, although to nowhere near the same extent!

I've heard a lot of people comment that Diana was too overwhelmed with the dress.
I actually haven't seen a wedding gown that looked good on the hanger so Diana's isn't that surprising that it didn't look too good. Even if Diana had lost weight, I don't understand why the designers didn't do multiple fittings.
BTW I don't know if I have mentioned it in this thread, but does anyone think the extra long trains sometimes just look weird? Like a long roll of toilet paper?
 
so many have said it and in the end it comes down to wether the Bride looked like she was enjoying herself and the day. I can't really think of a bride that looked miserable, Maybe.... from the only footage I have seen Princess Grace looked so tired and serious, but her beautiful face and dress made up for it a lot :p.
it's hard to judge some of this dresses because you have to take into account the year they were worn. Diana's maybe too much now, but for the time it fit the Princessy look box. I have seen my share of 80's dress, and hers is one of the best (not really an compliment, I guess..)
Interesting to come here I see so many different opinions. To me Letizia's and Mathilde' dresses were so great.
 
I've heard a lot of people comment that Diana was too overwhelmed with the dress.
I actually haven't seen a wedding gown that looked good on the hanger so Diana's isn't that surprising that it didn't look too good. Even if Diana had lost weight, I don't understand why the designers didn't do multiple fittings.
BTW I don't know if I have mentioned it in this thread, but does anyone think the extra long trains sometimes just look weird? Like a long roll of toilet paper?

Once the actual dress is cut, there are only so many adjustments that can be made before ruining the "line" of the dress. In Diana's case, this would have been an even larger issue than usual as the bodice was so very elaborate and the skirt was so wide. The Emmanuels actually did the final fitting the very morning of the wedding.

The point I was trying to emphasise though, was that the Princess was heavier and fuller figured when the design was picked and when the dress was first cut. Just look at the photos of her in the black strapless Emmanuel dress she wore for her first evening engagement with Prince Charles and compare them with her wedding day photos. I am of the opinion that if Diana had maintained that weight (circa March 1981) then the dress, particularly the bodice and sleeves would have seemed less overwhelming and it would have been more "Diana wearing the dress than the dress wearing Diana" in July of 1981.

On a side note, many commented that Kate Middleton's gown seemed to borrow from or "copy" Grace Kelly's. (IMO there was some inspiration there, but no copying.) Diana also picked a design the Emmanuels found in IIRC an Italian line of wedding gowns; there is no such thing as a gown totally original in conception, particularly when it comes to Royal Wedding dresses! (I'll have to check my copy of "A Dress for Diana" to see if they were more specific about where Diana saw the original design that they then modified extensively for her.):flowers:
 
Princess Letizia of Spain - beautiful woman in weird dress
 
I think it is so funny, to read all the comments on the dresses of each CP. What is seen as the most exquisite in one part of the world, is considered dish rags in another. f.x the people of southern Europe has atendency to make their dresses with lots of "bling"(no disrespect), where as in Scandinavia, we tend to go for the more simple, clean expression. So culture plays a great part in the design. So even if I wouldn't be caught dead in most of them, they were just right in the surroundings.
One also has to consider the sizes of the churces/cathedrals these weddings took place in. I mean they are HUGE i.e the Almueda and Westminster Abbey, so a dress like Mette-Marits, while georgeous, would look all wrong there.
 
I don't think it has anything to do with with location and culture. Diana is part of the western culture as I am and I still think her dress was horrendous. Princess Masako's traditional kimono was better than her "western" attire.
Also I must throw a shout out to Diana's sparkles. That was a nice touch; one of the few good things the Emmanuel's did.
 
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Not a fan of Diana's dress....however I absolutely loved Sarah's dress and really liked Catherine's dress, very elegant and classy.


MM
 
I don't know who does it, but I hate that Princess Margaret's and Sarah, Duchess of York's gowns do not get as much media attention as Elizabeth and Diana's. Both Sarah and Margaret's gowns were better than the women who were ranked higher than them.
 
IMO, it has nothing to do with rank. It has to do with popularity. It just so happens that out of that group of people, those who were popular had higher rank than the others.
 
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I'll add myself to the 'not a fan of Diana's wedding dress' camp. It seemed a little too much for me. She was able to somehow pull it off, but it was too puffy and over the top for my taste.

However, the dress aside, her smile on that day was very radiant. She looked extremely happy.
 
Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg - her dress and overall appearance wasn't quite right. Maybe it was the makeup, or the way the tiara sat.

CP Mary - finally, I have found others that didn't like the dress, hair or tiara. She looked uncomfortable in the entire outfit, and the panels on the dress...great on paper, shocking in real life. I always say that you can tell she had little input, and I wouldn't put it past Queen Margethe to "suggest" how she was going to look.

CP Letizia: All wrong. If she was taller and more robust, she would have pulled it off. Her hair was a disaster and I have never seen such a sad bride. She just didn't shine. As others have said, she looked lost in her gown.

Princess Mabel: Too many words, not enough time...

Queen Rania: As many have said, she is a beautiful woman, but her wedding dress was appalling. Thankfully she has redeemed herself 100000000 times-fold with her coronation dress...that was truly beautiful!
 
Why does a person's popularity diminish the fact that their wedding dress wasn't as beautiful as someone who wasn't as popular? Isn't that letting bias getting in the way of honesty? When Camilla got married I still mostly hated the woman, but I had to admit that she looked beautiful on her wedding day.
 
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