Vintage Wedding Trends in TV and Film

I recently spoke with a journalist at The List about two vintage wedding trends I’d like to see make a comeback or re-imagined for today. You can read the full article on The List. As a bonus, I’m sharing the work of Costume Designers that covered both trends in movies and television.

Color.

One trend - a spectrum of color - was covered in a recent article! I would love to see more brides play with color. Seventeenth century brides wore whatever their best dress was - no matter what color. A great example is Elizabeth Taylor's canary yellow dress decades later in 1964. More recently, we've seen Portia de Rossi in blush pink and even Christine Quinn ("Selling Sunset") in shimmering black. Color sets the mood, and I would love to see more brides show where their personalities fall on the color spectrum.

In TV and film, we’ve seen color wedding dresses on everything from Coming To America to Gossip Girls to Game Of Thrones.

At a 17th century wedding ball, the bride (center) wears an ornately decorated blue dress. At this time, it was popular for a bride to wear her best dress, no matter the color.

Elizabeth Taylor wore a yellow wedding dress to her 1964 wedding to Richard Burton.

Portia de Rossi wore a pale-pink wedding dress in 2008 to marry Ellen DeGeneres.

Grey's Anatomy: Mimi Melgaard

Cristina married fellow doctor Owen Hunt in season 7 of Grey's Anatomy wearing a deep red wedding dress. It featured a plunging V neckline and perfectly matched her bouquet.

Coming To America: Deborah Nadoolman Landis

The pink confection Lisa McDowell (Shari Headley) wore to wed Prince Akeem Joffer of Zamunda is hard to miss. The rosette alone is bigger than some brides' entire dress.

Gossip Girl: Eric Daman

Blair was the queen bee in Gossip Girl when it came to drama and fashion, so it's no surprise that she went with an unexpected, yet still elegant, wedding dress by Elie Saab. Chuck and Blair had a beautiful Central Park ceremony in the series finale, and this gorgeous gown was definitely her "something blue."

Gossip Girl: Eric Daman

Following in B's footsteps, Serena also got hitched to none other than Dan, who was revealed as the show's titular character in the series finale. She opted for a strapless gold, metallic, and white tulle dress from designer Georges Chakra in the final episode.

Game Of Thrones:

Sansa Stark's wedding ended horribly, but before viewers were left permanently scarred at the end of the season 5 episode, she walked down a snowy aisle in this winter wedding dress. It featured a fur shawl on top of a thick, quilted dress and long sleeves.

Suits: Jolie Anna Andreatta

Donna Paulsen didn't intend to wear a strapless black embroidered ball gown for her wedding to Harvey Spector. She originally wore it to Sheila and Louis's wedding, but somehow the unconventional dressed suited the couple's spontaneous vows perfectly.

Elaborate Head Pieces.

Brides wore elaborate headpieces in the 1920s. And while I'm not a huge fan of tiaras and flower crowns, I would like to see brides get more creative. Some great examples are Ingrid Bergman's caged juliet cap, Whitney Houston's lace crown, Celine Dion's crown of crystals and Hazel Gordy’s fur headband. These types of headpieces add a level of haute couture to a bride's look and are sure to serve up the "WOW" factor.

As anyone who lived through the early '90s can attest, Houston’s wedding was an extravagant affair — the seven-time Grammy winner wore a $40,000 French lace gown, designed by Marc Bouwer, which she topped off with an elaborate headpiece and floor-length veil.

Celine Dion's wedding headpiece weighed a whopping seven pounds. The singer had to have it sewn into her hair when she wed her manager, Rene Angelil, in a Marie Antoinette-inspired creation in 1994.

Motown legend Barry Gordon escorted his daughter Hazel down the aisle to marry Jermaine Jackson of the Jackson Five. Her scoop neck wedding dress is framed in white fur, while the gown is dotted in delicate pearls.

Sex And The City: Patricia Fields

SJP’s oversized ballgown she paired with a bird headdress when she was planning on marrying Mr. Big (Chris Noth) in 2008's big-screen adaptation Sex and the City.

What are some vintage wedding trends you’d like to see?