5 Fresh Wedding Dress Trends for 2018 Brides
If you’re just scrolling through Instagram, you might think that wedding dresses all look more or less the same. But if you pay closer attention to the runways at Bridal Fashion Week, you know that bridal designers shake things up every season, sometimes taking cues from the ready-to-wear runways—hey, major sleeves—and others creating high-style moments just for brides. Here are the anything-but-cookie-cutter wedding dress trends we're betting on big for 2018.
Courtesy of the designer.1/21Bridal Fashion Week 2018 Trends: Arm Warmers
We’re not sure how else to describe the stand-alone sleeves we saw again and again on the 2018 runways during Bridal Fashion Week. In some collections, the arm warmers were attached to the dress itself. (See: Rime Arodaky.) But on most, they were definitely independent of the gown. We were feeling lukewarm about the trend until we saw Monique Lhuillier’s take, which brought the perfect amount of playfulness to an otherwise understated dress.
Courtesy of the designer.6/21Bridal Fashion Week 2018 Trends: Cascading Shoulder Bows
Bows on bridal gowns are nothing new, but this is the first season we saw them streaming down shoulders—some dangled just to the elbow (potentially problematic during a soup course) while others grazed the floor (or, in the case of Legends by Romona Keveza, trailed into a train).
Berta Bridal
Courtesy of the designer.8/21Bridal Fashion Week 2018 Trends: Cascading Shoulder Bows
Courtesy of the designer.11/21Bridal Fashion Week 2018 Trends: High-Low Hemlines
Stephanie Seymour and “November Rain” get credit for inventing high-low bridal hemlines in 1992, but they certainly had a moment on the fall 2018 runways. Galia Lahav’s take (pictured here) felt very Guns N' Roses, while on other gowns, the hemline just crept to the midcalf. If we had to pick a favorite, that would be Sareh Nouri’s, which was lined with gorgeous blue-patterned fabric and featured a high-low crinoline with horsehair trim.
Courtesy of the designer.15/21Bridal Fashion Week 2018 Trends: Next-Generation Butt Bows
The massive butt bow of the eighties was reimagined for modern brides this season. No longer a stiff 🎀🎀🎀 shape, fall 2018’s waist-accentuating bows felt fresh—either undone (including here, at Anne Barge) or ornamental (at Viktor & Rolf).
Courtesy of the designer.17/21Bridal Fashion Week 2018 Trends: Next-Generation Butt Bows
Courtesy of the designer.18/21Bridal Fashion Week 2018 Trends: Watteau Backs
The Watteau-back gowns of the eighteenth century gave the illusion of a cape, with fabric that draped from a bride's shoulders to the floor. The modern take is a little less daunting, but it gives those who don't want a cathedral-length veil or a heavy train something reminiscent to trail behind them down the aisle. And in many cases the Watteau back is removable, so you get the drama for your ceremony but won’t be weighed down on the dance floor.
