Kate Middleton’s Wedding Dress

The wedding dress was designed by Sarah Brunton. Catherine Middleton has followed her own taste, a V-neck décolleté and a silhouette that stayed close to her torso, and long, delicate lace sleeves that evoked, perhaps, the wedding dress worn by Grace Kelly when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. On her head, she wore the Cartier Halo tiara (lent by the Queen, who herself was given it by her mother on the occasion of her eighteenth birthday) which carried the nuanced balance of simplicity, regalia, and family meaning.

Technically faultless in its scale and construction, the dress allowed the bride to move with ease, carrying all the weight of British history and expectation without the slightest wrinkle or hitch. It has a lace applique bodice with detailing symbolising the nations of the United Kingdom. It was made of satin and featured a lace applique bodice and skirt. The lace bodice design was hand-made using a technique that originated in Ireland in the 1820s called carriskmacross, which involved cutting out rose detailing (symbolising england), thistles (scotland), daffodils (wales), and shamrocks (irland), individually applying them to the ivory silk tulle. These lace appliques were hand-made by the royal school of needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace. The bridal train measured 270 cm (110 in). Hand cut English lace and French chantilly [->0]lace was used throughout the bodice, skirt, and the underskirt trim. With laces coming from different sources, much care was taken to ensure that each flower was the same colour. The whole process was overseen and put together by hand by Ms Burton and her team. Kates’ dress was narrowed at at the bodice to get the slim and elgant look.