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A Whiter Shade of Pale:
Meghan Markle and Bridal White
By the time of Princess Diana’s royal wedding in 1981, bringing
weddings back from the brink of nearly two decades of social unrest, the notion
of “virgin white” had not been completely swept away with the sexual revolution
of the 1960s and ‘70s. There were still underpinnings of deeply entrenched
beliefs about the “rules” of wearing different shades of white—ivory, cream, beige—inferring
one’s “virginal status.” (“If I wear cream,” a concerned bride-to-be asked me
in the early ‘80s, “will people think I’m not a virgin?”) Costume historian
Donald Clay Johnson believes the decades’ long “acceptance of white,
symbolizing ‘purity,’ is a reflection of the pervasive power of English
Victorian society to impose its value system throughout many parts of the
world.”
Now, however, in our Internet-equalizer, glam-image crazed world
there is a near universal popularity of the gown that turns any bride into a “vision in white” (no
matter her age or how many times she’s been married, whether widowed or
divorced) and evokes some kind of “princess” tingling down to her toes. Has the
color white—once reserved for “maidens” only—finally lost any cultural and
emotional symbolism and is now just a “pretty preference” for brides?
Fashion designers think so! The appealingly “unspoiled” nature of
white is why many couturiers still have a wedding gown as their theatrical
runway finale. When “stripped of religious and outdated cultural meanings,
white—pure and dramatic—is the perfect canvas to showcase the intense
craftsmanship of couture,” Eleanor Thompson wrote in her book featuring fifty
iconic wedding dresses.
Of course, Meghan Markle is not just any modern, savvy,
independent woman getting married again.
Her second wedding will be a very publicized, talked about, viewed world-wide royal wedding. So, naturally, there has
been much curiosity about Meghan’s choice for her bridal gown: what designer,
what style, what silhouette—but very little conversation about what color she will
choose. Even though she is marrying into one of the oldest monarchies on earth,
in a grand religious ceremony brimming over with ancient tradition, to a man
whose grandmother is head of the church—will Meghan make a choice based solely on
her good taste and good fashion sense?
Vogue
magazine, which thinks Meghan “demonstrates a growing sense of ease and
confidence with her fashion choices for royal engagements,” advises the
soon-to-be royal bride about her wedding gown choice: “You can’t go wrong with
the classics.” (It sounds as if “wearing white” is merely assumed. We, along
with the British monarchy, have indeed come a long way!)
In the mid-1980s, on the glittering culture-changing wave following
Diana and Charles’ royal wedding, I opened a bridal art-to-wear shop in Atlanta
for the emerging modern woman, a “grown-up bride” as I called her. (I closed
the store in late 1999; I thought the end of a millennium was a good transition
point to complete one life phase and begin another, especially with the coming
feminine energy powerhouse of the next thousand years—but that’s another
story!) During these shop years, when brides-to-be asked me about the symbolism
of white, I suggested that if they had it “mean” anything then why not choose
“celebration”—and joy and inclusion and love. I find that wearing white always has a ceremonial and regal
quality, for whatever occasion, taking on a kind of radiance. And I think Meghan Markle will choose from this spirit-centered,
radiant place where a woman simply knows her true self and her heart’s deepest
desire. ~
[Want to know
more about the “great white wedding”? The
End of the Fairy-Tale Bride: For Better or Worse, How Princess Diana Rescued
the Great White Wedding tells all! Available on Amazon.]
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