British royal wedding dresses often follow strict traditions, but some brides have made bold choices to break the mold
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Princess Eugenie showcased her scoliosis scar with a low-back gown, while Princess Beatrice wore an upcycled dress from Queen Elizabeth
Queen Victoria popularized white wedding dresses in 1840, shifting away from the colorful gowns of the era
British royal weddings are nothing if not traditional — but these bridal gowns broke a rule or two.
There are a number of official and unofficial norms that surround these momentous events, including asking the monarch for permission to marry and exchangingWelsh gold wedding bands, perBrides.
However, those guidelines also extend to the bride's attire. Traditionally, a bride in a royal wedding will wear long sleeves, don a tiara and follow several other rules, perCBS News.
However, brides likeQueen VictoriaandZara Tindallhave subtly brushed off norms of modesty and dress color. Queen Victoria helped popularize white wedding dresses in 1840 — shifting away from the colorful gowns of the era — while Zara wore short sleeves for her 2011 nuptials.
Here's everything to know about seven British royal wedding dresses that broke tradition.
Queen Victoria of England
Queen Victoriamarried her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, at the Chapel Royal in St. James Palace on Feb, 10, 1840. While it was tradition at that time to marry within bloodlines, her wedding dress was anything but conventional.
Instead of wearing a colored dress — like the reds, blues and browns that were popular and most worn by brides of the time — she set into place one of possibly the most widespread traditions of Western and royal weddings today, wearing white.
"She needed to signal submission, that she was going to be good from now on; that she was going to be a wife — soshe wore the simple white dress," historian and presenter ofVictoria & Albert: The WeddingLucy Worsley told PEOPLE in January 2019. "It became the ancestor of a million big white wedding dresses that people wear to this day."
The gown was made using silk from the Spitalfields area in England and featured Honiton lace, which was meant to revive the country's flagging lace industry, per theRoyal Collection Trust.
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
In the 1920s,Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, broke tradition by leaning into the modern trends of the flapper era, rather than wearing the traditional Victorian-style dresses that featured large, full skirts and corsets.
The Hon. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married Prince Albert, Duke of York — who later became King George VI — on April 26, 1923, at Westminster Abbey in a drop waist gown that had two trains, one falling from her shoulders and the other from her hips.
The dress was designed by Queen Mary's dressmaker, Madame Handley-Seymour, and was made of an cream-colored chiffon moiré fabric, perTatler. It was embroidered with pearls and silver thread, plus a lace insert that was a family heirloom.
The Queen also notably omitted wearing a tiara — they had gone out of fashion in World War I — and instead wore a crown of myrtle. That flower has been used in every royal wedding since Queen Victoria, perBrides.
Princess Margaret
What madePrincess Margaret's wedding dress non-traditional wasn't the fact that it was breaking any royal rules — it's that it was so simple.
To wed photographerAntony Armstrong-Joneson May 6, 1960, Princess Margaret wore a silk organza gown with long sleeves, a V-neck and a full skirt designed by Norman Hartnell, who also designed the wedding gown for her sister,Queen Elizabeth, in 1947.
At the time,Lifereportedly called it"the simplest royal wedding gown in history." According toTatler,Princess Margaret requested a minimalistic gown as not to overwhelm her 5-feet, 1-inch frame.
Princess Diana
Princess Diana's gown to wed the now-King Charleson July 29, 1981, still holds the record for having the longest British royal wedding train at 25 feet — which made it nearly impossible tofit in her carriageat the time.
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"If we pulled too much, straightening the material, her tiara and veil would slip," bridesmaid India Hicks toldHarper's Bazaarin May 2018 about holding the massive train. "But if we didn't pull enough, the effect of the train would be lost."
In addition to the train, her gown also subtly paid tribute to the bridal trends of the 80s, featuring puffy sleeves, a big skirt and ruffled neckline. It was also loaded with hidden items and good luck charms, including a gold horseshoe, a blue bow and even a matching umbrella created by the dress' designersElizabeth and David Emanuel— just in case the weather didn't cooperate.
Zara Tindall
Despitenot having an official title, Zara's wedding to English rugby playerMike Tindallon July 30, 2011, was royal nonetheless.
However, Zara eschewed long sleeves and instead sported a silk faille gown with sheer, tulle sleeves just covering her shoulders. The dress — designed byStewart Parvin, couturier to the Queen— also featured a hidden corset, drop waist and cathedral train. She topped off the attire the Meander Bandeau tiara, which belongs to her mother,Princess Anne.
Princess Eugenie
While the gown thatPrincess Eugeniewore to her Oct, 12, 2018, wedding toJack Brooksbankmay look traditionally royal from the front, the back tells a different story.
The back of her dress, which was designed byPeter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos, features a low-cut back to show off a scar from herscoliosis surgeryfrom when she was 12 years old.
"I think you can change the way beauty is, and you can show people your scars and I think it's really special to stand up for that," the royal said in an October 2018 interview onThis Morning.
The dress had a folded-down neckline over the shoulders and featured a number of motifs, including a thistle forBalmoral Castlein Scotland, ivy for the couple'sformer home at Ivy Cottageand a shamrock to represent motherSarah Ferguson's Irish roots.
In addition to the dress, Eugenie wore her grandmother Queen Elizabeth'sGreville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara.
Princess Beatrice
Like her sister,Princess Beatricestrayed from tradition to add extra meaning to her wedding gown.
To marryEdoardo Mapelli Mozzion July 17, 2020, with only close family in attendance, the royal bridewore a Peau de Soie taffeta dress by Norman Hartnellthat belonged to her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth. The royal has worn the gown a number of times, including for a state dinner at the British Embassy in Rome in 1961, for the London premiere of the filmLawrence of Arabiain 1962 and for the re-opening of Parliament in 1967.
While the dress was altered by the Queen's longtime dressmaker Stewart Parvin to feature a duchess satin trim on a shorter hemline and short puff sleeves for a more contemporary look, it still remained the first royal dress to be considered "upcycled."
As Caroline de Guitaut, the curator of an exhibition that featured the dress after Princess Beatrice's wedding, told PEOPLE in September 2020, Beatrice told him that the dress had just "stood out to her."
"She talked a lot about theupcycling aspect and how that was really important to hergiven the situation that we all find ourselves in at the moment, with the [COVID-19] pandemic and the compromises being made by everybody," de Guitaut said. "It really was a one-off kind of wedding, the whole concept was just so nice."
Beatrice also wore theQueen Mary diamond fringe tiara, which the Queen wore on her own wedding day. As a source told PEOPLE in July 2020, "the Queen saved this grand tiara specifically for Beatrice. It was always reserved for her as they are exceptionally close."
The insider went on to call it "arguably the most sentimental [piece] lent from the Queen yet."
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