‘You look beautiful,” Prince William whispered to Catherine Middleton when he finally laid eyes on her standing before the altar of Westminster Abbey on Friday morning.
And indeed she did.
Weighing in on what Kate Middleton wore on her wedding day
After months of speculation and denial, Middleton wore what everyone in fashion had hoped and prayed for: an elegant yet modern wedding gown, by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen.
The choice was apt for many reasons. McQueen, who committed suicide a year ago, is considered by many to have been the finest British designer of all time. Next week, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is opening “Savage Beauty,” a stunning retrospective of his work.
Burton, his longtime assistant, took over the house shortly after his death and has received boundless praise for her deftness in maintaining his bold cutting and dark, almost violent voice while putting her own feminine stamp on the line.
“Sarah Burton had been getting a lot of buzz with her collections, but she was still relatively unknown outside of fashion,” said Cameron Silver, founder of Decades, the vintage fashion boutique in Los Angeles. “Thanks to Kate Middleton, she is now a household name. And with the retrospective opening next week — well, Middleton’s choice was really smart.”
Sadly, the dress — a long-sleeved, corset-style gown in lace and satin — did not make the sort of McQueen-like statement that those fashion hopers and prayers had been hoping and praying for.
“Kate made a bold choice in choosing the house of Alexander McQueen, but then went very safe in her actual choice of fabrication and style,” said Lela Rose, an American designer known for her wedding dresses. Rose added that it was “a lost fashion opportunity to not have pushed the envelope further and done something more modern and fitting of where fashion is today.”
“McQueen was one of England’s best and edgiest designers,” said Paris-based Australian designer Martin Grant. “He left a real legacy. And what he always represented, bad boy, edgy and his image — skulls and death — it was a risky choice for a royal occasion, symbolically. At the same time, Kate Middleton is obviously willing to take risks, even if the dress wasn’t a huge risk. She could have so easily commissioned Bruce Oldfield, who is more English establishment and would have known exactly what to do. McQueen was a more modern choice.”
Los Angeles-based designer Jeremy Scott agreed that Middleton’s choice made a statement. “Choosing McQueen shows that Kate is aware of fashion and pop culture and felt strong enough to take on the house even with the recent tragedy of its namesake designer without worrying that it would overshadow her very joyous day.” But as far as the design of the dress goes, he added, “I don’t see how the dress will influence fashion, as it is not bringing anything new to the fashion conversation.”
“Princess Diana’s dress was a dress of a fairy-tale princess — still a dress everyone remembers,” said Valentino, referring to the voluminous taffeta confection that Prince William’s mother wore for her wedding in 1981. “Kate’s is a very pretty, modern dress that will be copied everywhere but lacks that fairy-tale element.”
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