The idea that being a bridesmaid means spending an entire day (and evening) matching with several other women is almost as old as weddings themselves. The roots of the tradition have been argued as dating back to ancient feudal China. “A bride would have attendants to protect her from evil spirits,” Dr. Angela Thompson, who teaches sociology at Texas Christian University, told The New York Times in 2018. “By having several women who are dressed alike, the spirits, or kidnappers, wouldn’t know which person was the bride.” Over the millennia, empires fell and superstitions faded. The style, however, stuck.
It wasn’t just tradition that kept this approach in place, but also practicality. As the U.S. was still industrializing into the 19th century, most clothing was all custom or made to measure. An outfit took weeks—or even months—to make. Multiple fittings were usually needed. So when brides and their party went to the salon, they’d select a pattern for their bridesmaids, provide sizing, and put in their order. It was really the only way to do things—even if the attendants weren’t always pleased with the aesthetics of the selections. (It turns out many weren’t: “Bridesmaids’ frocks have long suffered from monotony in design, want of taste in selection, and a startling variety in execution,” a frustrated maid wrote in a 1905 Pictorial Review article.)
Ready to wear—or, mass-manufactured clothing that was “ready to wear” the same day, at least—became the norm for women by World War I, and by the 1950s, over 90 percent of Americans were buying their clothes “off the rack” according to Ready-to-Wear and Ready-to-Work: A Century of Industry and Immigrants in Paris and New York by Nancy L. Green.
Yet even though the American consumer now had a greater variety of gowns than ever at the tip of their fingers, uniform bridesmaid styles still remained the norm for at least the next few decades. When Queen Elizabeth got married at…
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