How Charli XCX’s wedding style has inspired the ready-to-wear bride

I’m a low-key bride. What are my options?

It’s a brat-bride spring, thanks to British pop singer Charli XCX, who, in July, kicked off her marriage celebrations with a civil ceremony in London’s Hackney Town Hall wearing a Vivienne Westwood minidress with a simple veil and a white pair of Jimmy Choo Amita heels. More couples, it seems, are saying “I do” outside a church, dialling down the lace and tulle to create their own wedding-day wardrobe using ready-to-wear racks.

Like Charli and Yoko Ono who, in 1969, married John Lennon at Gibraltar’s British Consulate in an all-white ensemble that included knee-length socks and white tennis shoes, you can be very rock ‘n’ roll in a minidress. Bianca Jagger preferred the skirt-suit approach, opting for a white Yves Saint Laurent Le Smoking jacket with a bias-cut skirt and block-heeled, ankle-strapped, peep-toe shoes for her 1971 Saint-Tropez courthouse nuptuals to Mick Jagger. In 2008’s Sex and the City: The Movie, Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker wearing a voluminous Vivienne Westwood gown, is jilted by Big (Chris Noth) before finally securing her man, and a simple gold band, in an understated, vintage skirt-suit in City Hall.

The advantage of being a lowercase-“b” bride is being able to shop for items from the latest collections of your favourite Australian labels. While brands such as Rebecca Vallance and Rachel Gilbert offer bridal ranges, scour the collections of Maggie Marilyn, Bianca Spender and White Story for simple silhouettes on the paler end of the colour spectrum. Take advantage of the occasion by indulging in accessories that elevate your ensemble, such as millinery with a veil or a borrowed blue handkerchief. The only non-negotiable, of course, is the ring.

Got a style conundrum? Email damien.woolnough@nine.com.au

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