Bridesmaid Dresses that Rock

By Robert Sharoff

Sleek. Chic. Even (no joke!) sexy. Bridesmaid dresses no longer bring up fashion's rear guard.

Pretty, personal, and perfect: a suite of dresses from Lily Pulitzer.
Photo credit: Sheila Goode

It ain't easy being a bridesmaid. Not only is your role frankly and entirely secondary in the day's festivities, it also includes buying and wearing a dress that is generally designed with one idea in mind: don't upstage the bride.

Bridesmaid dresses have been the subject of considerable ridicule over the years. Last year, for instance, DeKuyper Pucker, maker of a popular brand of schnapps, held a national "Worst Bridesmaid Dress" contest at its first annual "World's Largest Bachelorette Party" in New York.

According to a highly unscientific but nevertheless very revealing survey conducted by the company, 60 percent of bridesmaids say they dislike the dresses they are asked to wear.

Afterwards, 51 percent donated the dresses to charity, 23 percent stashed them in the closet and 21 percent saved them for Halloween.

Yikes. Can they really be that bad? Well, maybe in the past. Today, however, designers and manufacturers of bridesmaid dresses are actively seeking to upgrade the category both by improving designs and by suggesting alternatives to the customary wedding chorus line of six girls in identically styled and colored dresses.

"The goal is you want everyone to have a good time at your wedding," says Cynthia Vor Broker, a spokesperson for the Dessy Group in New York, which recently won a DEBI Award - the bridal industry's Oscar - for innovation in bridesmaid fashions. "You don't want to make somebody - especially an old friend - miserable by having them wear a dress they abhor."

"We're talking about your best friends and relatives," says Denise Wash, vice president of marketing for Priscilla of Boston. "You want them to be comfortable and to look great. You don't want them to hate you. Besides, they're not the ones who are going to have to look at the photos for the next 50 years - you are."

This doesn't mean, of course, that bridesmaid dresses are ever going to have more than a supporting role at a wedding. "This is still the bride's day," says Vor Broker.

But it does mean that trends in eveningwear are playing a bigger role in bridesmaid fashions than in the past.

"We want the girls to look sexy and pretty," says Beth Blake, co-owner of Thread, a bridal salon and design firm in New York and Los Angeles whose dresses are sold in high style stores such Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel. "We've definitely taken the frumpiness out of bridesmaid dresses."

"Bridesmaid dresses used to be very matronly," says Faina, designer of the Bill Levkoff bridal line. "But they're at a point now where they're very elegant, very sleek and beautiful."

The new bridesmaid dresses feature numerous strapless and backless styles, many with shawls and wraps to make them acceptable in church or temple settings and which can be removed at the reception.

Even A-line styles - the mainstay of the industry - have slimmer silhouettes and are more "body conscious" - industry lingo for sexy.

"You want to be a little different and you definitely want the girls to want to wear them again," says Faina.

The Holy Grail for a bridesmaid designer is a dress that might actually find its way into a woman's post-bridesmaid wardrobe. One of the big stumbling blocks to this in the past has been color. Who, after all, is going to wear a pale blue halter dress to a cocktail party? Today, however, colors are getting both brighter and more sophisticated.

"Orange has been a big color for us in the last few years and we're also doing well with flamingo pink," says Blake.

"We do very well with black, particularly for black tie weddings," says Priscilla of Boston's Wash. "The girls like it because everyone looks pretty good in black and it absolutely makes the dress more wearable."

Prints also are finding their way into many lines. Lilly Pulitzer, maker of brightly colored shifts and casual dresses, has come on strong in recent years as a bridesmaid resource, mainly due to its bold patterns and colors.

"For informal or outdoor weddings where you don't want to have solid silk dresses, we're a perfect option," says Darlene Brinker, the company's director of marketing.

Another way brides are lending distinction to their wedding parties while at the same time keeping their bridesmaids happy is by not insisting on six or eight or ten identically styled and colored dresses.

At Thread, for instance, one of the options the company offers is that the bride selects the color and fabric but lets her bridesmaids pick from a range of designs. "If it's a group of 10 girls, maybe three wear one style, three another and three another and the maid of honor something else," says Blake. "The idea is everyone has a different body shape and they're free to pick the style that looks best on them."

Bridesmaid dresses range in price from about $100 up to $350 or more and usually need to be ordered eight to 10 weeks in advance. Most are made to order and will require one or more fittings after they come into the store. Fabrics are mainly synthetic versions of satins and chiffons.

Experts say when picking a style or styles, brides need to consider the different body types of her prospective bridesmaids. If you are determined to have only one style, choose the one that will look best on the bridesmaid with the biggest figure problems.

When shopping, "Come in with your mother or maid of honor," says Priscilla's Wash. "Narrow it down to a style or two. Then, if you want to bring in the rest of the party for decision-making, okay. Remember, though, that the more votes you have, the harder it is for the bride to get what she wants. And ultimately, that's the vote that should count."

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