News of Kate Moss’s engagement last week to her rockstar boyfriend Jamie Hince should have her fashiondesigner friends aflutter. Although she is likely to keep the dress under wraps until her big day, one thing is certain: the supermodel will not plump for a traditional wedding dresses .
She’s not alone. Increasingly, women are opting for more fashionforward dresses for their nuptials. The demand is so great that NetaPorter is launching an online wedding boutique next month, packed with cool pieces for brides who wouldn’t dream of wearing a poufy meringue.
Wedding dress dilemma 'solved' The boutique will sell “anything that could be worn as cheap wedding dresses ”, from commissioned pieces, including Stella McCartney’s black lace dresses reworked in offwhite, to looks straight from the catwalk. There are layered plissé dresses from Chloé and pretty tea dresses in organza from Marc Jacobs, as well as sleek sheaths from Roland Mouret and Jil Sander. It will also stock Lanvin’s Blanche collection, designer Alber Elbaz’s annual collection of dresses worked in a similar vein. The current range includes draped asymmetric silk dresses cinched with ribbon sashes and silk flapperstyle dresses trimmed with cream marabou feathers.
Shoes, jewellery and lingerie are also available, and everything is delivered giftwrapped in sleek white boxes.
The luxury etailer has already dipped its toe into the market with a small boutique that sits within the main site. “We had an amazing reaction when we first started to sell a few pieces, so it felt like the perfect thing to start doing in a big way,” says buying director Holli Rogers. “There’s a bride out there who doesn’t want fuss. Maybe she’s too busy, or decides to get married on a whim, or it’s her second wedding and she doesn’t want to go through five fittings again.”
For women used to shopping online, the idea of buying a cheap wedding dresses
can be no different from any other purchase. “I would have had no qualms about buying my dress online, if the boutique had existed when I was getting married,” says Jessica Bates, who got married wearing a Moschino oyster chiffon column dress in Chelsea last summer. “I shop online for clothes regularly, so I feel really comfortable with the way it works – trying on my dress at home would have been amazing.”
Convenience aside, for many modern brides, the idea of dressing up in a big gown that bears no relation to how they look on any other day of their life is offputting. As designer Erdem Moralioglu, who has recently been commissioned to create a short silk dress for one magazine editor, puts it: “On your wedding day you want to look like the very best version of you – not feel that you are 'dressed up’ as a bride.”
Arabella Cooper, who got married in a cream sheath dress by Dolce & Gabbana at her small wedding dresses last autumn, agrees. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to look devastating on the day, or that I didn’t want to floor my husband when I walked into the chapel. I wanted to look like myself, not what the wedding industry says I should look like.” She’s typical of many women in their twenties, thirties and beyond who refuse to buy into the “princess for a day” image that the bridal industry peddles.
Although cost was not a factor for Cooper, being able to wear the dress again definitely was. “What a waste to have something divine in your closet that you can’t ever find an occasion for again. That, to me, is a fashion faux pas.”