Wedding dress and clothing

What the couple and their guests wear is the most visible part of a wedding. Dress carries meaning in its colour, cloth, cut and the person who makes or lends it. There is no single wedding outfit. There is a red sari, a white gown, a kimono, a hanbok, a kente cloth and a suit, each rooted in a place and often in a family.

Colour and cloth

White became the fashion for Western brides after Queen Victoria wore it in 1840, though it was not the universal choice before. In India red is the traditional colour of the bride, in a silk sari, lehenga or the Banarasi weave, and in China red is used for luck, in the qipao or the two-piece qungua. In Japan the shiromuku is white and the uchikake over it may be red or gold. In Ghana and Nigeria families may choose coordinated kente or aso ebi cloth. In Morocco the bride may change outfits several times in the amariya chair.

The groom and the guests

Grooms wear sherwanis in North India, barong tagalog in the Philippines, the kilt in Scotland, the morning coat in formal English weddings, and the dishdasha or bisht in the Gulf. Guests follow rules too: no white at a Western wedding, no black at many Asian ones, a head covering at a Sikh gurdwara or a Greek church, and bright colour at a Nigerian celebration where matching cloth shows the family you belong to.

What is changing

Brides wear colours other than white, rent or borrow dresses, restyle a mother's outfit, or wear trousers. Same-sex couples choose from every tradition. Fast fashion and sustainability concerns have pushed more people to rent or alter existing garments. Handloom weavers and embroiderers have also benefited from a renewed interest in heritage fabric.