Fashion 88 : Trends of the Bride : Dresses Can Be Used for Wedding and Party After
True, big weddings are in vogue these days. But not everyone sashays down the aisle a la the Duchess of York. Not that the princess-bride look has fallen out of favor, but some of the more modern brides are injecting their own personal style into the traditional look.
These “cutting-edge brides” are choosing dresses that will transform between the ceremony and reception; a snap here, a tuck there and the bride has a look that can take her from the church to the best party in town.
San Francisco designer Roberto Robledo’s paper wedding dress appealed to 28-year-old Mary Ann Neet-Levesque because it was “two dresses in one.” The skirt, made of Tyvex, a specially coated washable paper that won’t tear, was attached to a ruched spandex bustier with a big Tyvex bow at the waist. A short organza jacket topped it all off.
Neet-Levesque, a talent agent at the Grimme Agency in San Francisco, married restaurateur Christopher Levesque in August. During the ceremony, the skirt came down to the ankles for “that long, long bridal look,” but later, when the hem was lifted and folded under the waistband, it became a pouf skirt with all the billowing crispness of a well-made meringue.
To heighten her bridal glow, Neet-Levesque inserted some battery-operated, red-and-yellow roadside-safety lights into the pouf. And voila! “When it got dark, the dress lit up and we drove away,” she said. “It wasn’t very traditional, but I’m not the traditional type.”
Neither is 27-year-old Karen Witynski, public relations director of the California Mart, who will be wearing a Karl Logan design when she marries entrepreneur Philip Miller in Cabo San Lucas March 12.
“I wanted to find something that would be witty, shocking and sophisticated but would take care of the length my mother thought necessary,” Witynski said.
The 6-foot, 1-inch brunette also wanted to show a little leg. Karl Logan’s solution: a floor-length skirt, open in the front, flamenco style, over a strapless minidress with a matching off-the-shoulder bolero jacket, all in oyster-colored silk taffeta.
The jacket--trimmed along the arms and hem with white Spanish tassels--together with the skirt, which is covered with layers of ruffles, have what the L.A. designer calls “a buoyant, bouncy look.”
Though the skirt and jacket sound perfect for a bride who likes to shimmy, they will probably come off, leaving the strapless mini, when the mariachi band begins to play.
“I don’t want to feel constricted when I am doing the samba,” Witynski said.
Feeling free was a major consideration for Lisa Bonder-Kreiss, a 22-year-old tennis pro. In January she married Tom Kreiss, vice president of Kreiss Collection furniture.
“I looked at several traditional gowns, but they all seemed too big and buttony. I’m used to playing in little tennis dresses and I wanted to feel free to move when I was walking down the aisle,” Bonder-Kreiss said.
Sensing trouble in the search for the perfect dress, Bonder-Kreiss’ mother-in-law-to-be took her to the Alley shop in Hollywood. There she spotted a black flamenco dress by Los Angeles designer Kevan Hall.
After several conferences, she and Hall came up with a white mini bustier version with a detachable peplum train in white point d’esprit lace. The bottom two layers of lace snapped off when it came time for the bride to dance.
“We are very individual, ‘80s kind of people with our own careers. I wanted the dress to reflect our style,” Bonder-Kreiss said. While handing the dress down to her future daughter may be a problem, wearing it again won’t be. “I would just leave off the train and take off some beads.”
No Qualms
Some women have no qualms about wearing their dresses again, but the idea does not appeal to all modern brides.
Super model Elle Macpherson, the cover girl on February’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, was married in May, 1986, to photographer Gilles Bensimon in a dazzling Azzedine Alaia creation: a hooded jacket and skin-slim skirt over a bodysuit, all of shimmering white viscose.
After the ceremony, the jacket was removed to reveal a sexy bathing suit-style top with crisscrossing straps across the back. The beachwear possibilities are infinite, but not for Macpherson, who puts it on every year on her wedding anniversary for one reason only, “to see if it fits.”
Though she was thrilled with the outcome of Alaia’s design, she said she had very little input. “It was all Azzedine’s idea. He said: ‘I’m doing your wedding dress.’ I didn’t have much say in the matter.”
For those of us who don’t have Alaia demanding to make our wedding dresses, there is another option. His recent contract with the Paris-based bridal house, Pronuptia, will put 10 exclusive samples in European stores by April.
The designs, according to Pronuptia’s Hania Destelle, are “very light and feminine, with lots of tulle and organza, shifting away from that tighter look.” Granted, Europe is a long way to go for a wedding dress, but for Alaia fanatics, it might be worth the trip.
Closer to Home
New York-based designer Steven Sprouse is a bit closer to home. Sprouse made a stunning contribution to the untraditional wedding-gown world with his dress for Vogue editor Elizabeth Saltzman Dubin’s September, 1987, wedding. Sprouse, an old friend of Elizabeth’s, sketched the dress on a tablecloth seconds after she asked him to design it.
Several months ahead of the short-in-the-front, long-in-the-back skirts that are presently gracing the Paris runways, Sprouse put a 20-foot train on the bride’s peplum. And if that wasn’t enough, after the ceremony, he took his scissors and cut it off. “We got married, it was done, off came the train,” Dubin said.
Pragmatic as she might appear, Dubin dismissed Sprouse’s suggestion that she dye the white silk jersey dress black and wear it again.
“I couldn’t wear it again and feel comfortable. I’d like to display it in a room on a mannequin. It is art,” she said. Just goes to show you that a modern dress, even one that has been chopped, does not necessarily lose its sanctity.
At the Venegas boutique on Sunset Boulevard, they are presently working on a wedding-dress design that changes from ball-gown proportions to a minidress. Diane Anderson, assistant designer to Diana Venegas, thinks similar orders will follow.
Like Kevan Hall, who said: “Women today don’t want to spend $3,000 on something that’s going to sit in a hope chest,” Anderson thinks that economics play a part in what may be a new trend. “A lot of women are buying these dresses themselves and it is an expensive prospect. People are being practical. They want something they can wear again,” Anderson said.
While most of the brides interviewed said they were thinking more about their own style rather than getting the most out of their money when choosing a dress, all acknowledged that it was nice to have the option of wearing it again.
Quick-Change Bride
Are we witnessing the coming of the quick-change bride? If so, Christian Lacroix may have more heads turning than ever before. Witness the first dress to come out of his new couture house last summer: a wedding dress for Mlle. Tia de Brantes, who became Mme Tia Pearson.
Beginning as a long-sleeve, off-the-shoulder, floor-length gown, the dress first lost its base, a cheerful pouf of crushed taffeta, after which went the sleeves and wide swathe of material around the shoulders. What was left? A pale pink strapless minidress and a blushing bride.
Prices:
Roberto Robledo’s paper bubble dress, $400, available by special order from Roberto Robledo, San Francisco, (415) 621-2502. Roadside-safety lights available at most hardware stores, about $4.95 per pair.
Karl Logan dress: Made-to-order dress; Karl Logan is in the California Mart.
Kevan Hall dress, $900, by special order from Saks Fifth Avenue.
Azzedine Alaia Pronuptia dress, by special order from France, phone number: 011-33-1-42-25-37-90. Very expensive.
Christian Lacroix dress: Special order, Maison Lacroix, Paris, phone number: 011-33-1-42-65-79-08. Prices vary here, but all are in the stratosphere.
