strapless dress

aliwush3 · March 2012

I was just wondering if anyone knew if there was a tradition behind wearing a strapless dress? I bought a halter to wear, but it seems like all I am seeing is strapless. Is there a reason for this? Just curious.

ElisabethJoanne · March 2012

Ditto CMGr.

I read in another bridal magazine that strapless ballgowm silhouettes are "classic." I can accept "classic." There can be "instant classics." And certainly the strapless ballgown will be considered "old-fashioned" someday (hopefully soon), just like the poofy-sleeved ballgowns are now considered old-fashioned, but still available.

But "traditional" implies a history. And the historical truth is even 20 years ago, strapless would have been considered a scandalous amount of skin to show at a wedding, and, as CMGr mentioned, can still be.

pattib5 · March 2012

I went into my dress shopping experience adamant that my gown NOT be strapless. Well, the stupid designers decided that 90% of gowns are strapless. So what'd I end up with? Strapless. Don't get me wrong, I do love my gown, but I'll be thrilled when something other than strapless comes back into stores.

Between poor alterations, poor posture, and poor choices, strapless doesn't even look good on a good majority of brides. I thought we'd see a bigger resurgance of sleeves after Kate Middleton.

ElisabethJoanne · March 2012

They're coming, slowly, patti

Avion22 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_strapless-dress?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:5f5ee3d6-6e70-45b1-a101-c9be4a7fa813Post:b18c3de7-558a-4676-a795-b4fe0f7283eb">Re: strapless dress</a>:
[QUOTE]I went into my dress shopping experience adamant that my gown NOT be strapless. Well, the stupid designers decided that 90% of gowns are strapless. So what'd I end up with? Strapless. Don't get me wrong, I do love my gown, but I'll be thrilled when something other than strapless comes back into stores. Between poor alterations, poor posture, and poor choices, strapless doesn't even look good on a good majority of brides. I thought we'd see a bigger resurgance of sleeves after Kate Middleton.
Posted by pattib5[/QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>I felt the same way. I knew immediately that I didn't want a strapless dress. It's not a flattering cut on me (I'm short and kind of chubby, and strapless dresses just make me look shorter and chubbier), and I have an old surgery scar I'm trying to cover up.</div><div>
</div><div>Anyway, I had NO trouble finding non-straples gowns to try on. Sure, there weren't nearly as many of them as there were strapless gowns, but each bridal store I went to had at least 8-10 in my prince range. This actually made picking a dress a little bit less daunting because I didn't have the entire store to choose from.</div><div>
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AdeleDazeem · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_strapless-dress?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:5f5ee3d6-6e70-45b1-a101-c9be4a7fa813Post:803b323c-87ac-49ae-b03e-801a77862e9c">Re: strapless dress</a>:
[QUOTE]I'm also waiting for the end of the mermaid silhouette. It is not friendly to brides with big butts!
Posted by CMGr[/QUOTE]

Or anyone.

Gabrielle76 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_strapless-dress?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:5f5ee3d6-6e70-45b1-a101-c9be4a7fa813Post:803b323c-87ac-49ae-b03e-801a77862e9c">Re: strapless dress</a>:
[QUOTE]I'm also waiting for the end of the mermaid silhouette. It is not friendly to brides with big butts!
Posted by CMGr[/QUOTE]
Agreed.

Wedding dress trends come and go. I had a hilarious experience with this last week, after going dress shopping with my mom and a family friend (the same age as her) When we got back, they both got out their old wedding dresses and put them on (they both still fit, I was impressed!) They were almost identical!

MiksChick23 · March 2012

You can also choose a strapless dress and have straps made, or wear a shawl or lace bolero.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_strapless-dress?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:5f5ee3d6-6e70-45b1-a101-c9be4a7fa813Post:b18c3de7-558a-4676-a795-b4fe0f7283eb">Re: strapless dress</a>:
[QUOTE]I went into my dress shopping experience adamant that my gown NOT be strapless. Well, the stupid designers decided that 90% of gowns are strapless. So what'd I end up with? Strapless. Don't get me wrong, I do love my gown, but I'll be thrilled when something other than strapless comes back into stores. Between poor alterations, poor posture, and poor choices, strapless doesn't even look good on a good majority of brides. I thought we'd see a bigger resurgance of sleeves after Kate Middleton.
Posted by pattib5[/QUOTE]

Same with me. I always thought I looked terrible in strapless and really wanted straps or cap sleeves. My dress ended up looking great on me - the empire waist and just a few, asymmetrical pick-ups were exactly what I wanted - and I decided against adding straps or sleeves at the end. But I do wish there would have been more of a selection. I feel like I tried on 1 halter top and the rest were strapless.

Girlie1030 · March 2012

CMGr, I accused my mom of having a rib removed when I tried on her wedding dress. She admitted she was corseted. I don't know how she survived that - July, in Phoenix, 3/4 length sleeves in a heavy scratchy fabric.

DeannaCW · March 2012

Not a tradition, just a (horrible, obnoxious imo) fad. I refused to try on strapless unless they were awesome, that definitely narrowed my choice down. I just don't see the point of paying extra to add something when you could just get a dress you love as-is. I ended up getting one that's a lil more than spaghetti-strap, but only just. There's always options, and like PP said, it helps narrow down your choices :P

Gabrielle76 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_strapless-dress?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:5f5ee3d6-6e70-45b1-a101-c9be4a7fa813Post:85491cf6-2253-4b97-ad1f-6b17bda63c57">Re: strapless dress</a>:
[QUOTE]Not a tradition, just a (horrible, obnoxious imo) fad. I refused to try on strapless unless they were awesome, that definitely narrowed my choice down. I just don't see the point of paying extra to add something when you could just get a dress you love as-is. I ended up getting one that's a lil more than spaghetti-strap, but only just. There's always options, and like PP said, it helps narrow down your choices :P
Posted by DeannaCW[/QUOTE]
It seems wierd to consider a lack of sleeves 'horrible' and 'obnoxious'. Maybe not to your taste, but 'obnoxious'? Is there any particular reason that you hate them so much?

DeannaCW · March 2012

more obnoxious in that it's 90+% of the dresses. If they were maybe half of the options, it would at least be some variety. But when you walk into a store and there's rows upon rows of strapless with maybe one row of every other style? That's when it gets obnoxious. But maybe I'm just still uptight about it from my shopping, when I went into one boutique and they acted like I was weird for saying "no strapless".

Girlie1030 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_strapless-dress?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:36Discussion:5f5ee3d6-6e70-45b1-a101-c9be4a7fa813Post:a1b296fe-2110-4243-9a6b-e0b714719235">Re: strapless dress</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: strapless dress :<strong> In what year was your Mom married?</strong> After Princess Diana was married in that huge, super-pouffy dress, things changed in wedding dress styles. Everybody had a basque bodice with big pouffy sleeves and tons of lace or glitter. Brides looked like crystal chandeliers coming down the aisle! It had to be uncomfortabel. Thank you Kate MIddleton for being more sensible! Before that, the predominant style was high waisted, long sleeves A line skirt. Much easier to wear! (Think flower child weddings.) My sister's first wedding was a hippie style love-in, and she wore a muslin mexican style dress with flowers in her hair. (I did not attend the reception. LOL!)
Posted by CMGr[/QUOTE]

My mom and dad were married in 1966. I also tried on my sister's wedding dress (married in 1993) and it was most certainly influenced by Princess Diana's gown (as you said above). Although I don't really love the dress I wore, it suited me much more than the heirloom gowns offered to me.

Teababe · March 2012

Strapless gowns are the style of the century! I went to find my wedding gown and they had very little to pick from that we gowns with sleeves. I think this style looks good on thinner body types. I would rarely recommend wearing one. Although they are every girl's ideal wedding dress.

random4180 · March 2012

^^^I kind of disagree with most of what you said....I'm not a thinner girl and I think my strapless gown looks great! I actually think straps tend to make my arm chub look worse because it pinches it together and creates "seams," for lack of a better word. And I never had an "ideal wedding dress" because I never gave a thought to a wedding until he proposed. But having now read a couple of wedding magazines and seen a couple of gowns, I honestly think there are so many incarnations of the strapless dress (ball gown, mermaid, trumpet, tea length, empire waist, drop waist, corset, A-line...) that it's pretty versatile. I think it's fine that it's not everyone's cup of tea but I considered getting a bolero or something before I picked out my dress- and after I was so in love with it, I didn't want to change a thing!

Bett2012 · March 2012

The first strapless dress I ever saw was 10 years ago and it caused lots of family members to gasp :P

I requested that a store bring in a specific gown for me to try on of one of the designers they carried and they said no because it wasn't strapless. If it was strapless they would have brought it in since they could easily sell it even if it didn't fit me or I didn't like it. But since it wasn't strapless, we had to pay the full non-refundable deposit to bring it in... I said no thanks and found another dress which I like better

curlybergie · May 2012

www.latterdaybride.com and www.beautifullymodest.com have some lovely dresses with sleeves. Mine has tank top style straps, but if I had known about these websites, I would have looked into ordering from there...I detest the strapless trend. It's solely for the benefit of the dress makers because they can more easily alter the dress and also charge more for adding on a sleeve or strap. The other reason I hated strapless was they all had low backs which were NOT flattering on me; the one I got has a higher back to it which is so much better for my shape.

OwningAHome1981 · June 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_strapless-dress?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:36Discussion:5f5ee3d6-6e70-45b1-a101-c9be4a7fa813Post:b18c3de7-558a-4676-a795-b4fe0f7283eb">Re: strapless dress</a>:
[QUOTE]I went into my dress shopping experience adamant that my gown NOT be strapless. Well, the stupid designers decided that 90% of gowns are strapless. So what'd I end up with? Strapless. Don't get me wrong, I do love my gown, but I'll be thrilled when something other than strapless comes back into stores. Between poor alterations, poor posture, and poor choices, strapless doesn't even look good on a good majority of brides. I thought we'd see a bigger resurgance of sleeves after Kate Middleton.
Posted by pattib5[/QUOTE]

I did not like Kate Middleton's dress at all- too old-fashioned for my tastes and I hate lace.

strapless dress

Re: strapless dress

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