Sheer comes the bride.
The wedding dresses that were slinking down the aisle at New York Bridal Fashion Week left little to the imagination.
Transparent panels, thigh-high slits and plunging necklines guarantee that every blushing bride has her something nude.
“The old traditions have been broken. Brides are asking for sexy, so the designers are making it for them,” says Terry Hall, fashion director at Kleinfeld Bridal. “More than half of the brides who come into Kleinfeld every single day end up leaving with illusion (see-through material) on their dress in some capacity, whether it’s a little in the back or across the midriff or down the side.”
Long gone are the modest ball gowns and chaste veils dating back to Victorian times when marriage was seen as a sacred rite.
Today’s runway brides aren’t saving it for the honeymoon.
THEIA creative director Don O’Neill, who first raised nuptial industry eyebrows by designing crop top wedding gowns four seasons ago, is really pushing the envelope with his titillating new Fall 2016 collection.
His dresses include a completely see-through “Khaleesi” white tulle one-shoulder gown inspired by “Game of Thrones” dragon queen Daenerys played by Emilia Clarke, Esquire’s new “Sexiest Woman Alive.”
There’s also a nude tulle dress with a whispy geisha print, which O’Neill assures has a very sheer lining so that, “your grandparents aren’t going to fall out of their pews when they see you swagger past them in your dress.”
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That remains to be seen. Even the more modest gowns at Anne Barge and Monique Lhuillier risked bared shoulders or featured detachable skirts to convert the floor-length wedding gown into a flirty reception mini dress.
Designers credit celebrity exhibitionists with pushing more wedding day gowns toward wedding night lingerie, such as the mesh dress Bella Hadid wore for her 19th birthday on Wednesday, or the see-through skirt Kendall Jenner slipped into while partying in London last weekend.
And they can all bow down to the Givenchy naked dress that Beyonce wore to the Met Gala in May, where Jennifer Lopez also showed her famous curves in a very sheer, red-beaded Versace gown. Pronovias’ 2016 line of racy lace wedding gowns, which flashed plenty of cleavage and pevage alike, would be right at home on these provocative pop stars.
“A wedding is a woman’s red carpet moment,” explains Hall. “So Hollywood has such a huge influence on what the bride has in mind for her wedding day.”
O’Neill agrees that the A-list influence on brides-to-be is moving them away from traditional A-line dresses. “Girls are following [naked celebs] on Twitter and Instagram, and now it’s showing up on the Pinterest board of every bride,” he says.
So expect more engaged girls to sign up for bridal boot camp workouts once they lay eyes on Houghton’s full-frontal see-through gowns and corsets. There was even one very pregnant model in a Houghton dress that was transparent from the baby-bump up, similar to the sheer Givenchy gown an expecting Kim Kardashian wore at New York Fashion Week last month.
Inbal Dror’s nearly-naked Fall 2016 bridal collection paired high slits and transparent skirts with strategically-placed beading and floral embellishments to cover the lady bits.
Wedding couture queen Vera Wang even sent her women to the alter barely dressed in bodices with bold cutouts, and one lace floor-length lace gown that was even gauzier than the traditional bridal veil.
“Women are pushing the envelope,” says Hall. “They don’t want to look like what their best friend wore, or what their sister wore. They want to make a statement.”
And that goes for the mother of the bride, as well.
“We’re doing sexy across the board, even with mom!” says Jose Solis from David’s Bridal. “They’re playing with a sheer illusion sleeve, an illusion back, or even a slit up the skirt so that they’re not so matronly. There are different versions of sexy for everyone.”
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