The Royal wedding between Prince William and Kate has finally come, and June is just around the corner! So the wedding bells will be ringing.
Of course, the most important element of a wedding is the bride's dress. In the early 80s, Princess Diana set the standard of fashion with her big puffed up wedding dress. The question is did Kate set a new standard? Well only time can tell, but Kate's dress, despite's its elegance, was rather plain and simple. Maybe it is because I have been living in Japan for 7 years, which offers a unique blend of Japanese tradition with western elegance. The result is a dress not to often seen in the west.
Wedding dresses in Japan offer the fullness of Diana's dress with a modern sense of elegance, combined with Japanese design.
In order to understand Japanese dresses, one must first understand the traditional Japanese weddings. Traditionally weddings are performed at Shinto Shrines. The bride wears a white Kimono called a shiromuku. After the ceremony, the bride then changes into a colorful kimono called an irouchikake for the reception and parties afterwards.
Both the shiromuku and the irouchikake are extremely intricate, and multi layered. Each one can take over 40 minutes to put on, and requires the assistance of a professional licensed kimono dresser.
The tradition of changing kimonos has also been adapted to a western style
wedding. The bride will often wear her white gown for the wedding ceremony, and then change into a colorful gown during the reception. So Japanese brides always selects 2 dresses for their weddings.
Today the modern Japanese bride can to choose to either wear kimonos or dresses for their weddings, both of which are very beautiful and extremely elegant.
Here are a couple of designers you should pay attention to.
Scena D’uno and Uno et L’Etoile (Uno Kanda): These sister labels are amazingly beautiful and elegant in both their Japanese and western wedding design. Words can’t express the beauty of these gowns and kimonos!
Hisako Takayama: This young versatile designer delivers a strong sense of classic elegance mixed with modern beauty in her designs.
Yumi Kasuta: As a Japanese woman based out of in Paris, she delivers a beautiful mix japanese elegance and French beauty.
So Kate, yes your dress was ok, but I think you should have gone with a Japanese designer instead.
