Traditionally associated with marriage, the white color has not always been rigorous! It is indeed a famous sovereign that makes it the shade reserved for the bride’s dresses, almost 200 years ago.
Associated with purity and virginity, white is nowadays the shade chosen by women for their wedding dress. This tradition is not new, because already, during the Roman Empire, the young brides wore, the day before the ceremony, a white tunic on which a coat was placed on the day of the celebration. But from the Middle Ages, the white color will lose credit and it is the colors that will win the bet! Until the 18th century, the expensive fabrics were indeed very sought after and the brides generally married in red, because this color resisted water, air and light. The blue color was also popular since this shade represented a symbol of wealth, a color at the time rare and expensive to produce. White was no longer in vogue, especially since it was often the color of the outfits brought by women who went to court.
It is a queen and not just any, namely Queen Victoria, who gave up her letters of nobility to white wedding dresses. On February 10, 1840, when she married Albert de Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha to the royal chapel of the Palais Saint-James La Sovereign, then aged 21, wore a satin cream of Spitalfields, a district of London for her silk, covered with Honiton lace at the collar and sleeves. Curved at the waist and with a crinoline petticoat and ‘a train, the dress was above all immaculate, which marked the spirits!
We later learned that this color had not been chosen for its purity, but because it highlighted the sumptuous lace of the dress. Others also claimed that Queen Victoria had opted for this color so as not to overshadow her husband who wore her camp marshal in the English army. But whatever the reason why white was chosen by the sovereign: her wedding dress remains today a model for young brides in search of refinement and elegance! Queen Victoria also imposed another non-color during her reign: black worn during mourning. Despered by the death of her great love Albert in December 1861, the sovereign decided, in fact, to dress in black until the end of her life. Two opposite colors that contrast with the joy of marriage and the pain of mourning.
