Deborah Chan
Queen Victoria wore a white wedding dress when she married Prince Albert in 1840. Her choice of a white gown broke with royal tradition and set a new trend for bridal fashion that continues to this day. Victoria's dress was made of Spitalfields silk and Honiton lace, with a deep flounce of lace and a satin train over six yards long. The white colour was chosen to showcase the delicate lace, and Victoria also wanted to support the struggling British lace industry. White wedding dresses quickly became the norm for wealthy brides after Victoria's wedding, though they did not become universal for brides of lower social status until much later.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Date | 1840 |
| Colour | White |
| Fabric | Spitalfields silk and Honiton lace |
| Style | Eight-piece bodice with a wide, open neckline, short puffed off-the-shoulder sleeves, a deep v-shaped pointed waistline, a floor-length skirt with seven widths of fabric in forward-facing pleats, and a six-yard-long satin train |
| Accessories | Turkish diamond earrings and necklace, a sapphire brooch, and flat white satin slippers |
| Influence | Popularised the white wedding dress as a symbol of purity, romantic propriety, and innocence |
| Other | Wore her wedding lace to the weddings of two of her children and was buried in her wedding veil |
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What You'll Learn
Queen Victoria's wedding dress was white satin with Honiton lace
Queen Victoria's wedding dress, worn in 1840, was made of white satin and featured a deep flounce of Honiton lace. The lace was handmade and created in a nearby village called Beer, in the style of lace from Honiton. The commission of the Queen's lace flounce employed 200 lacemakers who were otherwise facing poverty due to the invention of machine textiles.
The choice of white satin was both practical and patriotic. As head of state, Queen Victoria wanted to support and stimulate Britain's lace industry. White was the best colour to showcase the handmade lace. The lace motifs were appliquéd onto cotton machine-made net. The dress also featured orange blossoms, a symbol of fertility, which trimmed the dress and made up a wreath, worn instead of a tiara over her veil.
Queen Victoria wrote in her journal about her dress:
> "I wore a white satin dress, with a deep flounce of Honiton lace, an imitation of an old design. I wore my Turkish diamond necklace and earrings, and Albert’s beautiful sapphire brooch."
Queen Victoria's choice of a white wedding dress was highly influential and it soon became the norm for brides to wear white.
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She wore Turkish diamond jewellery and a sapphire brooch
Queen Victoria is credited with popularising the white wedding dress. On 10 February 1840, she wore a white satin gown with a deep flounce of Honiton lace to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She described her choice of dress in her journal, noting that she wore Turkish diamond jewellery and her husband-to-be's sapphire brooch.
The Honiton lace was handmade, and white was the best colour to showcase this. Victoria's decision to wear a lace gown helped to revive the flagging lace industry in Honiton, Devon, at a time when Brussels lace was more fashionable. As head of state, she wanted to support and stimulate Britain's lace industry. Skilled artisans were facing poverty due to the invention of machine textiles, so she chose a large piece of handmade lace, and her choice of colour was in part a practical one to showcase this.
The Turkish diamond jewellery was a necklace and matching earrings. The sapphire brooch was a gift from Albert, and she treasured it above all her other jewels. On her wedding day, she also wore a simple wreath of orange blossoms on her head, which became the iconic bridal headdress from that day forward.
The white wedding dress became the norm after Queen Victoria's wedding. Wealthy, fashionable brides quickly adopted the colour, and it came to symbolise romantic propriety and purity. Victoria's decision to wear white was also about practicality and patriotism, as well as purity.
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The white dress symbolised purity and romantic propriety
Queen Victoria wore a white wedding dress when she married Prince Albert in 1840. She wore a white satin gown with a deep flounce of Honiton lace, a wreath of orange blossoms and myrtle, Turkish diamond earrings, and a sapphire brooch from Albert.
Queen Victoria is credited with popularising the white wedding dress. Before her, wedding dresses came in a variety of colours, and white was a distinctly uncommon choice. However, white dresses were popular during the Regency era, and Victoria's decision to wear white was influenced by this earlier trend.
The white dress that Queen Victoria wore came to symbolise purity and romantic propriety. In her journal, Victoria described her dress as "spotless white, like a pure virgin, to meet her bridegroom." Fashion plates, adverts, valentine cards, and sheet music sold the image of the white dress and lace veil as a model of romantic propriety and purity. As a result, if a bride was marrying for the first time and could afford it, a white wedding dress became the norm.
However, it is important to note that Queen Victoria's choice of a white wedding dress was not solely about purity. As the head of state, she wanted to support and stimulate Britain's lace industry. She chose a large piece of handmade Honiton lace, and white was the best colour to showcase this delicate material. Additionally, white was also a show of wealth, as it was difficult to keep a white dress clean, and the cost of textiles and labour made it expensive to have a new dress made.
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White wedding dresses were uncommon before Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria described her wedding dress in her journal:
> I wore a white satin gown with a very deep flounce of Honiton lace, imitation of old. I wore my Turkish diamond necklace and earrings, and Albert’s beautiful sapphire brooch.
The choice of white was likely influenced by a desire to showcase the delicate lace, support lace-makers in England, and communicate her image as a "pure virgin". Victoria was aware of the public perception of innocence associated with the colour white, and her choice of dress and lace veil as a model of "romantic propriety and purity" was quickly adopted by wealthy, fashionable brides.
While Victoria was not the first to wear white on her wedding day, she was certainly the most influential. Fashion plates, adverts, and valentines sold the image of the white dress and lace veil, and by the mid-19th century, white had become customary for bridal wear. This trend has persisted, and today, a white wedding dress is the default choice for brides in Europe and European-dominant countries.
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She wore her wedding lace to her children's weddings
Queen Victoria is credited with starting the tradition of white weddings and white bridal gowns. On her wedding day, 10 February 1840, she wore a white wedding dress made of silk satin, trimmed with a flounce of Honiton lace. The lace was designed by William Dyce, head of the Government School of Design, and mounted on a white satin dress made by Mary Bettans. The plain, cream-coloured satin gown was made from fabric woven in Spitalfields, East London.
Queen Victoria wore her wedding lace to the weddings of two of her children: her eldest daughter, Victoria, in 1858, and her youngest son, Leopold, in 1882. Her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, was permitted to wear it as part of her wedding gown in 1885. Victoria also wore the lace to the wedding of her grandson George (the future George V) to Mary of Teck in 1893.
The Honiton lace used for her wedding dress proved an important boost to the Devon lace-making industry. As a mark of support for the industry, Victoria often wore lace on her clothes and those of her children, and she insisted that her daughters order Honiton lace for their wedding dresses. She also wore her wedding lace to the christenings of her nine children, except for Albert Edward's, for which she wore her Garter robes.
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Frequently asked questions
Queen Victoria wore a white wedding dress in 1840.
Queen Victoria wore white for several reasons. Firstly, she wanted to support and stimulate Britain's lace industry, and white was the best colour to showcase the handmade Honiton lace. Secondly, she wanted to be seen as a wife rather than a queen, and white was a symbol of purity and innocence.
No, Mary, Queen of Scots wore white on her wedding day in 1558.
Yes, white wedding dresses quickly became the norm after Queen Victoria's nuptials.
Queen Victoria's wedding dress was made of Spitalfields silk and Honiton lace. It had a structured, eight-piece bodice with a wide, open neckline and short, puffed, off-the-shoulder sleeves. The pointed waistline was deep v-shaped, resembling a basque shape. The floor-length skirt was very full, containing seven widths of fabric in forward-facing pleats.
