BY DESIGN : WEDDING WEAR : Traditional Attire Has Always Been Sign of Time

What bride needs to be told what to wear at her wedding? Everyone knows that white, or a slight variation, is the color, and, whether a dress is simple or extravagant, what matters is that she show up in it.

Anne of Brittany married Louis XII of France in 1498 in a white gown, setting a trend that continues today.

Before then, women chose just about any dress they looked good in. It could be any color except black (unless you were being married in Iceland, where it’s appropriate) or green, the color of jealousy and the symbol of grass stains. A woman with grass stains on her clothes in the Middle Ages may as well have worn a sign that read: “Romp in the Meadow With Me.”

The veil, considered optional today, dates back at least 4,000 years. In Asia, women wore a veil at all times as a sign of submission and modesty, but a more liberal policy developed in Europe. Veils only had to be worn at weddings by brides who had been kidnaped for a nuptial. Lacy, translucent veils became popular first in Greece and Rome.

Medieval clergyman would probably order many of today’s brides back up the aisle and out of the church after they marched in. Having hair pulled back or French-braided is popular today, but 500 years ago, a bride wore her hair long, simple and down the back--a symbol of virginity.

Most brides carry a bouquet but are probably unaware why it’s a custom. As she holds her flowers, she’s expressing her desire for fertility. Been divorced? Maybe you didn’t burn your bouquet within a month of the ceremony, which wards off bad luck.

Who hasn’t seen the ubiquitous wedding reception photo op where the groom removes the bride’s garter while the band plays “The Stripper?” In early times, the male attendants did the honor, and, in Christian weddings, the garter was blue, the color of the Virgin Mary, and that’s why brides are admonished to wear something blue.

Into the 19th Century, gowns became known for bustles, tight corsets to ensure a 20-inch waist, lacy fabrics and “dress improvers,” which would probably be sold today as a derivation of the Wonder Bra.

The gowns mimicked high fashion of the day, the message of which was to attract as many men as possible while being as modest as one could be. Clothing was a passion for women, because society approved of no other profession for them other than wife, and attracting the right man was all.

Queen Victoria, whose celebrated rules of modesty set the tone of the 1800s, wasn’t always so prudish. Her wedding dress was off-the-shoulders and full of fertility-reminding orange blossoms. However, in keeping with her personality, she married Prince Albert in a Windsor Castle ballroom, hiding from the public while “undressed.”