As speculation over what Meghan Markle’s dress will look like when she marries Prince Harry in a few days’ time reaches fever-pitch, a new poll reveals the best and the worst, most photographed wedding gowns.
A healthy smattering of Royal wedding dresses made it into the top ten, however it was a movie star who went on to became a Royal, that topped the best dress list in the survey for online fashion brand JD Williams.
The late Princess Grace of Monaco seduced the world with a gown that won international acclaim from ordinary people and fashion critics alike when she married Prince Rainier in 1956.
However, some wedding dresses are memorable for all the wrong reasons. Angelina Jolie’s 2014 Atelier Versace gown featured multi-coloured doodles from her six children with partner Brad Pitt, all over the back and sewn into the flowing veil and tops the list of the ten worst dresses.
It’s not hard to see why Grace Kelly’s dress was voted number one on the best dress list. There is a timeless quality to the long-sleeved fitted lace bodice, embroidered with hundreds of tiny seed-pearls and the billowing ivory taffeta skirt and train made from 25 yards of silk. The bride opted for a lace and pearl headpiece instead of a tiara and carried a lace covered bible and simple posy of lilies of the valley. The dress was created by MGM costume designer Helen Rose and was a gift from the studio valued at $7,266.68.
Media commentators described the dress as “magnificent” and it still influences designers today, including Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, who created, the gown which came second, the wedding dress of Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge at her marriage to Prince William in 2011. With its extravagant train, lace –collared V-neck bodice and long lace sleeves the dress hit just the right note of class and haute-couture for a Royal wedding.
Third place went to the gown worn by Jacqueline Bouvier when she married future President of the United States John. F. Kennedy in 1953. The stunning dress, made by little known designer Ann Lowe, with its 50 yards of ivory silk taffeta, portrait neckline and full circular skirt was a huge fashion success, but Lowe, an African American designer, did not receive public credit for her creation and only charged $500 for it, a bargain even then.
However, perhaps the most photographed wedding dresses of all time, that of Lady Diana Spencer at her 1981 marriage to Prince Charles made an appearance on the worst dress list due to the huge puffy sleeves.
Lawyer Amal Alamuddin has appeared on dozens of “best-dressed” lists since she first started dating movie star George so it was no surprise that her bespoke Oscar De la Renta, French lace wedding gown did well in the survey.
Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr who married snap chat Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel last summer, was another bride whose dress was inspired by Grace Kelly’s. Her elegant custom-made long-sleeved high-necked Dior number easily slipped into the top ten.
Also on the list was Kiera Knightley, whose pared-down off-the-peg knee-length tulle Chanel dress was accessorised by a specially made white Chanel jacket and a floral garland in her hair, perfectly suited to her informal French wedding to Klaxons musician James Righton.
Other top ten dresses included Jacquie Ainsley’s, the former model who married film-maker Guy Ritchie in 2015 wearing a bespoke ivory lace gown by Phillipa Lepley, Geri Halliwell who married F1 executive Christian Horner that same year in a classic French lace dress also by Lepley and Kim Kardashian.
The reality star married Kanye West in a Givenchy couture fish-tail gown with lace illusion cut-outs and a luxuriant train in Florence during an epic four-day £2.5 million pound wedding extravaganza in 2014 that also included parties in Paris and Versaille. It was the bride’s third wedding and a surprisingly tasteful dress, given her penchant for far less coverage in her every-day-wear.
The list for the worst dresses includes a double entry for Katy Price. The dress she wore for her now defunct marriage to former stripper Kieran Hayler in 2013 was voted second worst and branded “vulgar”. It revealed both a lot of leg and an awful lot of cleavage with the outfit including a tiara and veil. The dress she wore to marry Peter Andre in 2005 also made it to the list albeit at number five, a startling puff ball of bright pink with matching veil with a huge pink rhinestone tiara that would have made Barbie blush.
Other dresses that got the thumbs down included the short, brightly patterned outfit worn by Emma Thompson at her 1989 nuptials to Kenneth Branagh, complete with a veiled pill box hat, model Lisa Butcher’s backless and side-less dress at her short-lived marriage to Marco Pierre White in 1992 and Serena William’s strapless gown with an enormous net skirt, worn to marry Alexis Ohanian, Reddit co-founder, last year.
Suzi Burns of JD Williams said: “Our survey did throw up some obvious choices for the best and worst dresses, but also some surprising ones. It is amazing how some iconic gowns like Grace Kelly’s have stood the test of time, while other famous bridal gowns split opinion down the middle. Perhaps the best example of that is Diana Princess of Wales’ wedding dress which definitely had a “Marmite” effect. Some people loved it, while other’s hated it, but no one will ever forget it.”
Best Ten Wedding Dresses
- Grace Kelly marriage to Prince Rainier
- Kate Middleton marriage to Prince William
- Jacqueline Bouvier marriage to JFK
- Amal Alamuddin marriage to George Clooney
- Miranda Kerr marriage to Evan Spiegel
- Salma Hayek marriage to billionaire François-Henri Pinault
- Jacquie Ainsley marriage to Guy Ritchie
- Kiera Knightley marriage to James Righton
- Kim Kardashian marriage to Kanye West
- Geri Halliwell marriage to Christian Horner
Worst Ten Wedding Dresses
- Angelina Jolie marriage to Brad Pitt
- Katy Price marriage to Kieran Hayler
- Emma Thompson marriage to Kenneth Branagh
- Lady Mary Charteris marriage to Robbie Furze of band The Big Pink
- Katy Price marriage to Peter Andre
- Lisa Butcher marriage to Marco Pierre White
- Serena Williams marriage to Alexis Ohanian
- Anne Hathaway marriage to producer Adam Shulman
- Gwen Stefani marriage to Gavin Rossdale
- Alicia Keys marriage to hip hop artist Swizz Beatz
