Least Favourite Royal Wedding Dress


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Katrianna said:
Well, Princess Astrid of Belgium was married in the 80's, a decade of obscenely awful styles. She wasn't the only Royal bride with the hideous large sleeves, Diana's were just as bad. Diana's dress was so wrinkled, it was a nightmare.
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Indeed! What were they thinking.... Idk if it's more:bang: OR :ROFLMAO:
 
Queen Penelope said:
Totally agree!! However, for me Mary's hair and tiara didn't bug me as much the heavy, flat pleating on the dress!!. Made it look rather unkempt.

I feel Marie wouldn't be Marie without a tan!!...but it wouldn't have hurt to miss a session or 5 at the tanning salon!!! :p

Love them both though!!
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Exactly! And someone else pointed out the "flaps" on Mary's dress as well, I had never really noticed until I was watching a youtube vid & saw them blowing in the wind...:ROFLMAO: I think having them straight or "connected" to the dress would have been just fine.:flowers:
 
Cinquefoil said:
Exactly! And someone else pointed out the "flaps" on Mary's dress as well, I had never really noticed until I was watching a youtube vid & saw them blowing in the wind...:ROFLMAO: I think having them straight or "connected" to the dress would have been just fine.:flowers:
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Flaps!!!...that's what they were!!! LOL. I youtubed the wedding and they were absolutely flaps!!! I originally thought it was just heavy pleats/folds that were flattened against the dress and they didn't "fluff" them out.
 
Queen Penelope said:
Flaps!!!...that's what they were!!! LOL. I youtubed the wedding and they were absolutely flaps!!! I originally thought it was just heavy pleats/folds that were flattened against the dress and they didn't "fluff" them out.
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LOL, i know I thought the same thing initially!:lol:
 
Sophie, Countess of Wessex- Looked like she had a nightgown on, or a bathrobe, tiara and jewellery was ugly.
Princess Diana- a wrinked bed-sheet of a train
Mabel- How many bows does a girl need? Awful!
 
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roseroyal said:
Sophie, Countess of Wessex- Looked like she had a nightgown on, tiara and jewellery was ugly.
Princess Diana- a wrinked bed-sheet of a train
Mabel- How many bows does a girl need? Awful!
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Yes I agree about the Countess of Wessex as well. My husband said the same thing..that it looked like an expensive nightgown w/matching robe!

As for Diana, as beloved as she was/may still be, she was very young & wanted to appear very sweet, and as well-made and embellished as it was, I don't think I have ever run across anyone who would say, "oh I'd wear her dress..."

Mabel is, in the well made but ugly as heck category! I'm ALL for being unique, but seriously...

Then again, perhaps the one thing these ladies did right was to be remembered ;)
 
I did not like Sophies dress too.Their wedding was medieval style and I guess you have too understand the style of her dress.I really did love the jewelry but not for a wedding.Prince Edward designed the necklace so I guess she didnt want to hurt him by not wearing it!
 
Did medieval people wear that bathrobe- style of dress?
 
Cinquefoil said:
Yes I agree about the Countess of Wessex as well. My husband said the same thing..that it looked like an expensive nightgown w/matching robe!
:lol: Great minds think alike!

As for Diana, as beloved as she was/may still be, she was very young & wanted to appear very sweet, and as well-made and embellished as it was, I don't think I have ever run across anyone who would say, "oh I'd wear her dress..."
She, I think was every little girl's fantasy vision of Cinderella, but that dress and train was..:ermm:
Mabel is, in the well made but ugly as heck category! I'm ALL for being unique, but seriously...

Then again, perhaps the one thing these ladies did right was to be remembered ;)
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Is'nt it nicer to be rembererd as a beautiful bride, rather than looking awful?
 
roseroyal said:
Is'nt it nicer to be rembererd as a beautiful bride, rather than looking awful?
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Indeed, I would think so...I'm sorry it may be improper to say, but Mabel's dress IS good for a hearty laugh:ROFLMAO:
 
I thought Princess Anne's wedding dress (for her first wedding, to Mark Phillips) was just plain awful. It did nothing for her and while she's has never been a traditionally beautiful woman, I have seen her in gowns that made the best of her still quite formidable assets. Some of her engagement pictures with Mark featured long white dresses that really outdid that rigid-necked, sloppy-sleeved and altogether boring dress she wore for that wedding.

I'm also of the (probably minority) opinion that it's better to make an extravagant mistake on your wedding day than to look boring and overly plain. Then again, it was the seventies! Her hair and makeup were lovely, though.
 
Mabel, oh Mabel what were you thinking? It's only recently that I discovered a picture of the train and realized that this dress is worse than I thought it was.
 
I really liked Anne's dress beacuse it was unique and very Anne.On the hair well.....that's a diffrent story.
 
1. Princess Diana, apart from the wrinkles it was just an overall ugly dress.
2. Princess of the Bows, I don't know her name but dang do I know the dress.
3. Princess Mathidle
 
I'd like to answer the original question without taking into consideration the merits of the gowns - some of the dresses of-course may have looked bad on the brides or been ill-fitting, but as for the actual bride herself, I think most of the royal brides have looked very beautiful indeed. I am struggling to think of a royal bride who did not herself look lovely and radiant on her wedding day. So, although Mabel's bow dress was not exactly to my taste, she herself looked very lovely.
 
I don't remember anyone disliking the dress at the time of the wedding, and she certainly popularized that romantic style--at least on this side of the water. It's funny how perceptions of things change through time.:flowers:


Cinquefoil said:
As for Diana, as beloved as she was/may still be, she was very young & wanted to appear very sweet, and as well-made and embellished as it was, I don't think I have ever run across anyone who would say, "oh I'd wear her dress..."
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Diana's dress was perfect for the fairy tale she was supposed to be living, from today's perspective it may look horrible with all the ruffles but it was the 80ies, remember? Duran Duran, Boy George etc etc ... it was very very hip back in those days :D

From recent times, best brides for me were Mette Marit & Maxima. Great, simple designes. I also liked Victoria but I didnt like the fact that she copied her mother in every detail, be it wedding date, jewellery, boat trip etc etc etc.

Brides I thought looked horrible in recent times were Mary and Letizia. I didnt like both dresses, veils, hairdo's, plain horrible.
Mary - terrible placing of the veil, looks like a milkmaid in Tudor age
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9lFAgfv1aPI/TXiRkGcQOZI/AAAAAAAABJE/zm1LxdQema0/s1600/PopyActually%2BMary%2BDenmark.jpg
Letizia - what an ugly dress from a stone-age designer, doesnt work for such a petite woman at all, non-existing hairdo
http://www.publiboda.com/cm/images/royal_weddings/felipe letizia/principes.jpg
 
Mermaid1962 said:
I don't remember anyone disliking the dress at the time of the wedding, and she certainly popularized that romantic style--at least on this side of the water. It's funny how perceptions of things change through time.:flowers:
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Oh gosh...they were lots of people razzing the dress at the time of the wedding...one of the New York papers called it "crumped tissue paper" and not one of my pals(all young girls in their late teens and early 20's) liked it.

The only people I knew who thought it was really wonderful were very little girls and old ladies, honestly.

Personally, I was EXTREMELY disappointed when I first saw it.
 
dazzling said:
Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau :D
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Hahahaha..and I was thinking who the Princess of the Bows is? Princess Mabel...oh Mabel..I just wished magic will touch Princess Mabel and her sense for fashion changes. The wedding dress was so Mabel.
 
The 80s excuse is weak, Sarah got married in the 80s and her dress looked great and she had bows. Anne got married in the 70s and she looked good; nothing about her dress had 70s fashion. Grace Kelly got married in the 50s and her dress was timeless. Fairy tale does not equal ugly dress. Since when did Cinderella go to the ball and get married in an ugly dress?
Despite Princess BowCrazies dress, her hairstyle did not flatter her face.
 
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Moonmaiden23 said:
Oh gosh...they were lots of people razzing the dress at the time of the wedding...one of the New York papers called it "crumped tissue paper" and not one of my pals(all young girls in their late teens and early 20's) liked it.

The only people I knew who thought it was really wonderful were very little girls and old ladies, honestly.

Personally, I was EXTREMELY disappointed when I first saw it.
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You were not the only one to be disappointed ! I did hear that the designers forgot to account for Earl Spencer being in the coach when they designed and made up the toile for Diana's dress. This has always been the "reason " given for the creases.
None of my friends wanted to wear a dress like it , but several friends had dresses along the lines of Sarah Duchess of Yorks.
 
I thought Sarah's gown was GORGEOUS when I saw it...and I had been holding my breath because I didn't know what to expect from her that day!

But Lindka Cierach designed a gown that was beautiful and flattering.

Diana's face and makeup on her wedding day were breathtaking. But her hair fell flat against her forehead, and the gown was...a mess, in my opinion. It's ridiculous that the designers "forgot" Earl Spencer would be in the carriage, isn't it?? A good designer also takes into account that the bride will be sitting, standing, kneeling, etc.

The Emmanuels just blew it, imo.

I like it a little better now because I understand what the Emmanuels were going for. But Diana lost too much weight, and the wrong material was used.

Otherwise it might have worked.
 
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I wasn't born when Diana got married and I didn't pay any attention to her until the 1997 accident. That is around the time I first saw her dress and I was just floored by how ugly it was. Not even the creases, but the huge sleeves and lace sewn into everything. Sarah DoY's wedding dress was very beautiful and I am sure the only reason it doesn't get as much love is because she isn't as famous as Diana (nor well liked). She had bows and poofy sleeves as well, but not a waterfall of them. I personally would not wear Sarah's dress, but it definitely looked beautiful.
I also don't understand how the Emmanuel's forgot that Diana's father would be with her; didn't they have months to design this thing? I have seen wedding dresses with even bigger skirts than Diana's and they didn't end up wrinkled so I guess the material was really all wrong for that event. I recall someone saying that the mistakes of the dress were because the designers were young. And in a special about the '81 wedding, I believe it was the male designer who said they had to push and squish the dress into the carriage so it would fit. Holy crap no wonder it got wrinkled. I wonder if every royal bride since then has had to "make sure the dress doesn't crease" one of their #1 priorities when designing their dress. I recall when Kate got in the car, she seemed to have to sit a certain way and Sarah followed her in to make sure everything was laying properly.
 
XeniaCasaraghi said:
I wasn't born when Diana got married and I didn't pay any attention to her until the 1997 accident. That is around the time I first saw her dress and I was just floored by how ugly it was. Not even the creases, but the huge sleeves and lace sewn into everything. Sarah DoY's wedding dress was very beautiful and I am sure the only reason it doesn't get as much love is because she isn't as famous as Diana (nor well liked). She had bows and poofy sleeves as well, but not a waterfall of them. I personally would not wear Sarah's dress, but it definitely looked beautiful.
I also don't understand how the Emmanuel's forgot that Diana's father would be with her; didn't they have months to design this thing? I have seen wedding dresses with even bigger skirts than Diana's and they didn't end up wrinkled so I guess the material was really all wrong for that event. I recall someone saying that the mistakes of the dress were because the designers were young. And in a special about the '81 wedding, I believe it was the male designer who said they had to push and squish the dress into the carriage so it would fit. Holy crap no wonder it got wrinkled. I wonder if every royal bride since then has had to "make sure the dress doesn't crease" one of their #1 priorities when designing their dress. I recall when Kate got in the car, she seemed to have to sit a certain way and Sarah followed her in to make sure everything was laying properly.
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Sarah's dress was made of heavy, "double duchesse" satin and thus the weight of the gown prevented creasing. Kate's was silk gazar under the lace, a crisp, almost stiff fabric that also avoids wrinkling. Diana's dress was of silk paper taffeta, the lightest weight of all taffetas, which are all lightweight to start with. Therefore the weight of Diana's dress was not at all resistant to creasing.

The Emmanuels were very young when they received the commission to create Diana's wedding gown and did not have the benefit of hindsight unlike every BRF bride since then as they all made sure their dresses did not fall prey to the same mistakes that the Emmanuels made.

Personally, I remember the creases disappearing once Lady Diana was inside St. Paul's and the dress was put in order before she processed down the aisle. I also think Diana had bought into the whole "fairy story" aspect of the wedding and wanted a true fairy tale gown. I think she succeeded in that. For all the criticism now given her gown, it still influenced strongly many,many seasons of bridal dresses. If it were such a complete failure, I doubt that would have been the case. Funny though how the Princess, in later days, wished that "the moths have had at it" and wished she had chosen something different. I do believe both Charles and Diana were pleased with it at the time, though, especially as Charles privately commissioned not one, but two, portraits of the Princess in her wedding finery. The first portrait, he specifically asked that the artist show as much of the dress and train as possible; the second, Diana is not wearing the veil and the train is nowhere in sight.

Tastes change but I think in the eyes of history Diana's dress will be by far the best remembered of any Royal wedding since Victoria's, who started the tradition of white for brides. Just my opinion, of course. :flowers:
 
So the brides since Diana had hindsight, so how about the brides before Diana? Grace, Elizabeth, Margaret(huge skirt), Katherine Duchess of Kent (huge skirt). None of those got wrinkled. All the same, the Emmanuel's should not have "forgotten" that Diana's father was going to be in the carriage and if they chose such a light fabric they should not have pushed and crumpled the dress.
As I've said before, even without the wrinkles the dress is ugly.
 
XeniaCasaraghi said:
So the brides since Diana had hindsight, so how about the brides before Diana? Grace, Elizabeth, Margaret(huge skirt), Katherine Duchess of Kent (huge skirt). None of those got wrinkled. All the same, the Emmanuel's should not have "forgotten" that Diana's father was going to be in the carriage and if they chose such a light fabric they should not have pushed and crumpled the dress.
As I've said before, even without the wrinkles the dress is ugly.
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That's your opinion and we're all entitled to hold different opinions.:flowers:
Perhaps a better choice of adjectives would have been "memorable". My opinion is that Diana's dress will be the most memorable of all BRF brides since Victoria.

Just as with Kate's dress, the important point is whether Diana herself liked and felt comfortable in the dress on her wedding day. It's the Bride's opinion that matters most, IMHO. And obviously she did like it at the time and so did her groom or there would not have been the two privately commissioned portraits of the Princess wearing the gown.

Personally, I thought the Princess's hair stylist let her down the most on the wedding day. Her hair did not hold up well at all and got worse as the day progressed. Of course, I agree the Emmanuels should have remembered her father's presence in the coach and I think it's a shame that at first glance there were so many wrinkles. As for the other dresses you cited, none had the volume of Diana's and some of the brides did not travel in the Glass Coach.

At the "end of the day" - a dress is still just a dress, and the real shame of it is that the marriage did not work out. But I will never forget how the lights sparkled on Diana's dress and veil and the awesome sight of that train against the background of St. Paul's and that long, long red carpet. I guess that like Diana herself, I too fell prey to the fairy story aspect of it all and that skews my opinion somewhat.

I don't think however, that one can dispute my saying that the dress was memorable or we would not be debating its points thirty years after the day we first saw it! Better to have a dress that some love and some hate than a "middle of the road" gown that clings to safety and focuses attention on the attire of the chief bridesmaid. Not that I have anyone in mind, lol.:whistling:
 
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