Farewell meringues: elopement frocks are big in bridal

Custom wedding dresses are the latest victims of the credit crunch as couples forego OTT weddings in favour of elopements and off-the-rack designer frocks.

A model walks the Australian Fashion Week runway during the Acler show on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images

Before Covid, couples wanting small weddings and elopements booked their big days with event planner Emily Fuglsang 18 months from their desired date. Today, requests for three-to-six-month turnaround times are the new norm.

“Most of my couples are still booking for this year; even as early as August” the wedding planner said.

Last year Fuglsang’s Byron Bay-based business Elope wed 100 couples. This year this number is on track to double. With the average Australian wedding costing $33,000, a growing number of couples are opting to forgo the three-figure guests lists in favour of micro weddings or elopements, which can cost as little as $1000 and can be arranged in a month.

For couture wedding dress designers, who require at least a year if not more to design, fit and produce a custom gown, it’s an impossible time frame to work with.

For brides wanting to get hitched sooner than later, “they’ve just got to get it off the rack; they have no choice,” Fuglsang said.

Fortunately Australian designers are stepping up to meet demand, with the elopement dress trend being reflected on the Fashion Week runways.

Yesterday Australian ready-to-wear brand Acler unveiled a bridal collection dedicated to modern, trend-focused brides. Acler co-founder Kathryn Forth’s own wedding experience inspired the idea for the brand’s foray into the category.

“With a somewhat quick turnaround between becoming engaged and then setting a date, several bespoke designed options were not an option for me due to the time frame, but I still wanted a carefully crafted bridal look,” she said.

Co-founder Julia Ritorto said this scenario was increasingly common among today’s brides-to-be. “After the world stopped for many years and couples experienced their nuptials being cancelled or postponed – sometimes numerous times – we believe the mindset has changed,” she said. “Shorter engagements, couples booking in the day as soon as they can, meaning less time for long lead plans.”

It was the bride who wanted “a contemporary and ready-to-wear piece, without the long lead time of a ‘made to order’ style”, which Forth kept in mind when designing the range, which includes dresses and separates in various shades of white with pleats, ruffles and other accoutrements. The collection also included pieces to suit a wedding with several events such as welcome drinks with sleek white tuxedo trousers and a blazer with folded details.

Following its Tuesday show, label Aje was flooded with order requests for its Cosmos tiered maxi skirt, a flowing white design due to drop in October. Designer Edwina Forest said trend reflected the changing attitudes of today’s brides, who wanted dresses which reflected their personalities rather than tradition.

“Brides today are much more confident when it comes to expressing themselves and their individual style, and less concerned about opting for what has been traditionally defined as a ‘wedding’ dress,” she said. “More broadly, I think it also speaks back to how many of us consider the clothing we invest in across the board, with versatility — the idea that a wedding dress could even be worn again — and a feeling of effortlessness factoring in more than it ever has before.”

Designers such as Rebecca Vallance, Rachel Gilbert, Albus Lumen Bianca Spender and Maticevski have all launched dedicated bridal collections in recent years, catering to brides who choose to eschew couture creations. Earlier this month Christopher Esber launched a bridal capsule with luxury online retailer Net-a-Porter.

David Jones General Manager womenswear Bridget Veals said white occasion dresses were ordered each season with the modern bride in mind, and the store was looking at a drop shipping model which would enable designers’ bridal collections to be available through David Jones’s online store.

“Bec and Bridge do a really good job of it and most of our occasion brands like Misha, Rebecca Vallance and especially Bianca Spender, they all do dresses you could wear to a wedding if you didn’t want to choose a traditional wedding dress,” she said.