LONDON — Alessandra Rinaudo, artistic director at Pronovias, will never forget the first time she dressed a bride in a trouser suit. Actually, it was two women getting married in Spain around 15 years ago, and both were wearing suits.
“One was red and the other was white,” said Rinaudo. “The women looked amazing together. I’ll never forget it.”
Although Pronovias specializes in wedding dresses, Rinaudo always has options for brides who prefer to wear a suit, tailored separates or an all-in-one on the big day.
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“Not all women are the same,” and not everyone wants a dress, said Rinaudo, adding that over the past three years she’s seen an increase in demand for tailoring. In response, she offers jumpsuits; tuxedo jackets worn over crepe T-shirts or crop tops, or suits with detachable chiffon overskirts.
She described the women who ask for tailoring as “super-confident, and chic,” much like Bianca Jagger, whose ivory “Le Smoking” by Yves Saint Laurent set a new standard of nuptial cool.
Pronovias isn’t alone. Daisy Knatchbull, founder of The Deck, the first women’s tailor with a shopfront on Savile Row, said she’s not only fielding requests from brides but from their mothers, daughters and girlfriends as well.
“There are a lot more people than you think who don’t want to wear a fairy princess dress,” said Knatchbull.
The tailoring trend was already gathering steam before lockdown, but Knatchbull believes the pandemic — and all of the canceled or postponed weddings — shifted a lot of people’s perspectives, and priorities.
“Right now, we’re seeing micro weddings. Having a small wedding makes that bride really think about what she wants to wear. Maybe it’s a suit with a special embroidered message inside, or something blue or borrowed that we’ve stitched into the suit. It’s that kind of woman who’s come out of COVID[-19].”
While the pandemic helped to accelerate the trend for bridal tailoring, there are other dynamics at play, such as sustainability.
Wedding trousers can be let out, taken in and reworn ad infinitum, while jacket buttons and linings can be changed and updated. While a wedding dress can be transformed, sold or donated to charity, many end up hanging in the closet, yellowing with age.
Some brides aren’t even bothering to buy their wedding clothes. They’re renting them instead.
Two years ago, Britain’s former first lady Carrie Symonds married her beau Boris Johnson dressed in a flowing white gown by Greek designer Christos Costarellos which had been rented from the fashion platform My Wardrobe HQ.
At the time, the decision was considered unusual. Not any more.
Sacha Newall, founder and chief executive officer of My Wardrobe HQ, said that brides are now renting multiple outfits for their wedding day (or days). That includes tailoring, which Newall described as a fast-growing trend across the market generally.
She said that brides are often opting for a classic dress for the church and then changing into tailoring for the party afterward, or wearing tailored clothing to the registry office ceremony, “and then changing into something short and sparkly or feathers” for the evening.
Full-price luxury retailers are also seeing some women opt for tailoring over traditional dresses.
Tiffany Hsu, vice president womenswear and kids’ wear fashion buying at Mytheresa, said the site has “always offered tailoring within our bridal category, and it is very popular with our customers. These pieces also work really well for other evening occasions.“
Last year Bella Freud began offering sharp tailored clothing as bridalwear in response to her customers’ requests. She sells it via her own site as well as on Matchesfashion.
“When people are getting married, they want to look like themselves still. Town hall weddings are becoming increasingly popular, and we see that people want to be glamorous without having to do this huge number,” Freud told WWD last year.
She said there is so much indecision and confusion about wedding day dressing “because so many people find they are having to be someone else for the day. I don’t want it to be confusing for them. It’s an old tradition, but people are experimenting, and we’ve seen a huge interest in white and cream tailoring, in waistcoats and this kind of boy-girl love, which is very sexy and interesting.”
Style is another big reason why some women prefer tailoring over traditional dress. Tailoring offers older brides, and the mother of the bride, a cool, sporty option.
“We get bridal parties [at the Savile Row store] and they’re so much fun. Everyone is drinking Champagne, sitting around with their best friends, and crying when the mother sees the daughter, or the daughter sees the mother who’s getting married again,” said Knatchbull.
At The Deck, she said, three-piece suits with a wide leg are the most popular, with brides opting for cream, and mothers and friends favoring light blue, pale pink or yellow.
The Deck offers customization, with tailors able to sew a father’s necktie into the back collar of a jacket; customize the back of a waistcoat with a special fabric; or add special stitching, or messages, inside, that are meant to last forever.