Why has Chinese wedding fashion gone full Western? And will hanfu sweep it aside?
Chinese brides used to wear black, then red, before the Western white gown became ubiquitous. Some push back now and don hanfu bridal wear
I was invited to wedding dress fittings at a couple of bridal shops last week because my niece is getting married later this year.
I had never been to wedding dress fittings before, and I was slightly overwhelmed by the rivers of tulle and organza in the shops.
Individual wedding parties were sequestered in their private enclosures, with plush settees, heavy curtains and cups of tea. It felt like the setting of a couturier’s atelier in the early 20th century, a time when “models” referred not to the malnourished women on whom the dresses were displayed, but to the dresses themselves. In fact, in one of the shops we visited, every dress had a name, like Ikea furniture.