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Friday, April 29, 2011

A Royal Dress


Princess Diana's wedding dress.  Aw, this dress on a stand pic makes me feel kinda sad actually...



Ah yeah, now that's a dress


From "A look back at Princess Diana's Wedding dress":


"It is quite arguably the most famous wedding dress of modern times.

Princess Diana's dress was made of 40 yards of ivory silk taffeta and antique lace.

It was covered in 10,000 hand sewn pearls, and who could forget the 25 foot long cathedral train.



"We sewed her into the dress because I had a nightmare that the train might fall off down the aisle," Elizabeth Emanuel said."

Now THAT is a dress!

It's kind of funny:  when Princess Diana stepped out of that carriage on her wedding day, I thought her dress was URGLY.  I thought it was all EW, and not white, and SO, SO WRINKLY. 

Now that I'm older and shockingly, majestically more mature, I think it's a FABULOUS dress.  An ingenious dress.  But I'll get to that. 

Fast forward THIRTY FREAKING YEARS, and today everyone is talking about the marriage of Wills and Kate.  What time would I have had to get up this morning if I wanted to watch the wedding?  Four?  Five?  Yeah, that's NEVER EVER going to happen.  Sure, the wedding is kinda neat, and yes, it's a ROYAL wedding, but there are two problems with this:


1) I am not in any way shape or form, a morning person.  After Ella was wailing at 3:30 this morning that she'd had a bad dream, I was dead to the world until 7:00.  DEAD TO THE WORLD, PEOPLE

2) I think the whole monarchy business is kinda ridiculous. 

OH RELAX, I'm not going to get all Chumbawamba about it (catchy song--a little too extremist maybe, but it's got a good beat and I can dance to it), but I'm really not a big worshipper of anything besides a good night's sleep.  But, I'm not going to be a big crust pot about it.  I've had many a debate with The Man, who is much more of a traditionalist than I, and whose family does have some commemorative queeny, princey, princessy type mugs and plates and stuff, but today I'd rather be girly and talk about dresses. 

So, I missed the wedding.  Yeah, I actually kind of shunned the wedding, because I'm a miserable jerk like that, and I kinda felt like I was missing out on something. I heard a lot of people on TV and in blog land talking about having fun tea parties, and making scones and stuff like that, and even if I'm not jumping up and down because some privileged girl became a PRINCESS, I DO LURV A PARTY.   Damn.  I LURV a party. 

However, I had to tune in for a bit, because weddings are nice.  I am still a romantic at heart (THAT'S RIGHT--even if I chow doritos in my hotel room, while wearing ripped gitch, instead of getting my love on with The Man), and I am still a girl I guess, so I likes a good fancy dress.  Yeah, you do too: that's why it was totally awesome when your Barbie clothes collection had a white dress and cheap little net veil.  So, I tuned in to see how lovely Kate Middleton looked, and what her dress looked like:




image from HERE
 Lovely, right?  Nothing not to like.  Beautiful, elegant, modest and pretty, and not like this:

trashy much?  Image from HERE

She looked young, and fresh, and timeless in a Grace Kelly kind of way, which is just how she should look really.  However, did her dress PUNCH THE WORLD IN THE FACE like Diana's?  I would have to say NO.  Did Diana's dress say; "THAT'S RIGHT, B*TCHES, I'M ROYALTY NOW"?  Hellz yes. 

I mean, regardless of whether or not you loved Diana's dress, you have to admit it was genius for the time.  It was big, decadent, and luxurious in its yards and yards of fabbo sumptuous taffeta-ness, and damn it, it could be wrinkled just to show you that it doesn't have to be ironed or shiny because it's FREAKING SILK, PEOPLE. 


But most importantly, you have to consider this:  Diana got married in 1981.  The 80's people.  The MOTHERTRUCKING 80's.  You know:  one of the worst eras for hair, makeup and fashion EVER?  The era that gave us the SHOULDER PAD, the LEG WARMER, LILAC COLOURED LIPSTICK and FEATHERED HAIR? 

Yeah, that's right.  So, before you conclude Diana's dress was ugly, remember, she could easily have walked down the aisle like this:





image from HERE
or this:

Yeah.  You know what I'm talking about. 



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17 comments:

  1. i did get up for the wedding,and yes it was mostly to see the dress!

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  2. and what did you think of the dress then, Paula?

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  3. I, personally, thought Kate's dress was absolutely... positively.. NOT worth getting up for.

    :)

    But yes, Kate was pretty and all...
    But I feel like I've seen many a versions of her dress.

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  4. it was really pretty, but lacked the 'i am royal now'wow factor.as for di, i got up early to see her dress too,but that one made my sigh!maybe it was because i was only 9,but her dress is really wow even now,though i would look like a giant creme puff in it!

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  5. It was a very simple elegant dress...classy but no wow factor. It just shows who she is...confident understated elegant.
    Having been through the dress thing i perfer more wow and a great updo..that is my favourite..wish i had done that.

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  6. and I would agree with you there, Nerdo. Very 'grace kelly,' like I and a zillion other people said. Diana's dress though? Totally memorable.

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  7. good points Paula. I'm sure you'd look lovely in it. Anyone would look regal in that, wouldn't they???

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  8. yeah, we probably would all have a bit of a do-over on our wedding dresses Pam--but then, maybe not? Maybe some people are perfectly happy with their wedding look on their day?

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  9. Last 3 blogs: teeth scraping, poop wiping, acres of wedding dress wearing. hmm. Not exactly trilogy material, but it keeps me coming back to see what's next!

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  10. it was precisely variety that I was giving you credit for... ;)

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  11. Yeah, that last dress was pretty bride-of-Frankensteinish. I think both Di's and Kate's dresses were beautiful. And being I was seven month preggers in my wedding dress, I think their dresses would have hid my bump marvellously!

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  12. 7 months, eh Sandra? I don't know, I'm sure you looked pretty. I'm not the type to snicker and "well, well WELL" at people when they're pregnant and getting married. Who cares? It probably made you look more beautiful. You'd have had more fun without the bun in the oven of course...

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  13. i would never want a do-over for my wedding. i didn't especially want a wedding at all, but the mothers insisted. i'd run off & do it somewhere totally untraditional if i had to do it again.

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  14. I think I was pretty happy with my wedding. Our wedding ROCKED. It's one of only a handful of weddings I've been to with a good dj. OPEN BAR, good dj, good eats...ah yeah. It was a good party.

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  15. I loved the simplicity of Kate's dress. Diana's dress was 80s, in your face "we are royalty" pomp and pagentry. Look at the 19/20 year old girl that we're turning into a princess.

    The monarchy has changed in the last 30 years and we're in different times now where so many people are stuggling. To me the simplicity showed that this is a new generation of the monarchy and they aren't going to be excessive just because they can be.

    And in the modesty, I see the legacy of Diana. The trees decorating the church will be replanted, the flowers donated.

    An additional thought... I don't think 29 year old Diana would have chosen that elaborate dress. Not that it isn't iconic, but her style was refined as she got older.

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  16. Excellent points Lisa: we are all a product of the age we're in, while we're in it to a certain extent. It's true: the 80's was definitely an era of EXCESS in everything: bigger hair, more makeup. I did think Diana's dress was neat though for this reason: I asked my sister; when you were a kid, and you'd draw a 'princess dress,' what would it look like? A lot like the dress Diana wore. Still, you're right--I think people of today appreciated the modesty of how Kate looked.

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