TV Bride’s Black Wedding Gown Might Make You Rethink Traditional White

Even if you don’t follow Filipino television, you might want to take notes from the upcoming episode of the drama Wildflower. Star Maja Salvador shared photos of her character’s wedding dress on Thursday, and they’re causing quite a stir. It’s one of the most breathtaking black gowns we’ve seen off the runway.

Designer Val Taguba designed the strapless ball gown with an enormous skirt made from French lace and encrusted with Swarovski crystals throughout.

“[We were] inspired by royal Spanish weddings,” Salvador’s stylist, Regi Cruz, told the Filipino website Preview. “The reason for choosing to wear a black gown, aside from the fact that her character is nontraditional, is that it [serves as a] warning that there would be bigger and more thought-provoking things to come.”

Salvador’s character on the show goes by the name Ivy Aguas, though in the plot reminiscent of ABC’s Revenge, that’s just the name she assumed when plotting to take vengeance on the family she blames for her parents’ death. Part of that plan includes marrying the son of her enemy, according to Preview.

A black wedding gown seems pretty appropriate for a bride like Ivy, but she’s not exactly being “nontraditional.” As fashion historians are always quick to point out, the white wedding dress tradition only goes back to Queen Victoria’s 1840 wedding. Brides in Spain didn’t pick up on that trend until the 20th century, and up until that point many wore black. That may have been meant to symbolize the “till death” aspect of wedding vows, or it may have just been a practical use of a dress they already owned.

In the 20th century, at least one very famous bride wore black for her wedding: Sarah Jessica Parker. “Oh, I wish it was because I was badass,” she said of the dress on Watch What Happens Live in 2016. “I just was too embarrassed to spend any time looking for a wedding dress. There was a store that I liked that I knew, and I just went and got whatever they had hanging.”

More recently, Zosia Mamet wore a black Givenchy dress for her wedding last October.

“The minute [the dress] went over my head, both my friends gasped,” she told Vogue. “It definitely wasn’t the most epic in terms of the dress’s power on its own, but it fit me like a glove in every way, and I knew, without a doubt, that it was my dress.”

High-end designers have been offering wedding gowns in many different colors lately, and while some brides won’t dare to go darker than millennial pink, there are certainly options for everyone. A sure sign black wedding dresses are making their way to the mainstream? These two options at David’s Bridal.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

• Teacher’s 20 Students Were Her Flower Girls and Ring Bearers

• Steph and Ayesha Curry Celebrate Their 6th Anniversary on Instagram

• The Obamas Send Newlywed Couple a Moving Note of Congratulations

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