As featured on Paperlust

by Maddison Wallace

There’s one detail of your big day that eclipses almost everything else: your wedding dress.  All eyes are on the bride, from the show-stopping moment when you walk down the aisle to your first kiss, from your first dance to your big exit at the end of the day. It’s a detail many women dream of long before they’ve met someone they want to marry. Wedding dresses come in a huge range of styles, from giant princess ball gowns to sleek mermaid silhouettes, and trends are always changing.

If you’re looking for wedding dresses Melbourne is the dream: There are a tonne of stunning bridal shops Melbourne wide, from Sydney Road to Armadale and even out in the suburbs. From vintage wedding dresses Melbourne to the most sleek, contemporary designer dresses Melbourne, there’s something for every bride.

Bridalwear designers and wedding dress boutiques are at the forefront of wedding fashion, with their finger on the pulse creating and selling the dresses of our dreams. They know better than anyone what’s becoming more popular, and what will be happening at weddings in coming years.

We spoke to 7 of the best bridal designers and bridal stores Melbourne to find out what’s going to be big in the 2018 wedding season. Different bridal stores and designers cater to different parts of the market, so will see different trends among their clientele, but a number of things came up again and again as we chatted with these experts. Some of the things that came up repeatedly? Sleeves, sheer fabric, black, and comfort.

Whether you want to stay right on trend or you want to know what’s popular so you can do something that stands out from the crowd, read on to find out more.

Gwendolynne Burkin of Gwendolynne designs stunning dresses that bring timeless beauty to contemporary designs, and are all about your wedding dress allowing you to be “you” rather than “a bride”. Many of her pieces really do have the potential to be worn more than once. “I always say why invest in having something so beautiful crafted for you that you can’t wear more than once?” Gwendolynne has been in the industry since she was 14, and ‘Gwendolynne’ was launched in 1997, becoming one of Melbourne’s best-known couture gown labels.

Gwendolynne is unique because she has one to one contact with her clients: “When you come to Gwendolynne you aren’t meeting “bridal consultants”, you meet the people that make the pieces including myself. We are tucked away in the backstreets of Fitzroy doing our own thing rather than being part of Melbourne’s Sydney Road/ Armadale bridal circuit. That way in this location we can also manufacture on site, which is a real rarity. You can actually come upstairs and meet the person making your gown or see where it’s made!”

What does Gwendolynne see trending in 2018? It’s all about the sleeves: “Oh my if I had a dollar for the amount of sleeve requests!” however she warns that this can be a tricky look to pull off: “I find a lot of brides find it “too much” when they see this look on them…sleeves can actually make one’s silhouette look fuller in the light bridal shades people prefer for weddings.”

The mermaid silhouette is out: “Many years ago when I started my bridal range I resisted full skirts but as a designer I’m feeling there will be a return in a few years…Most of my clients tend to be amused by the mermaid look and realize how completely unflattering it is on most women.”

Sheer dresses with nude slips are increasingly popular. “It looks like the gown is effortlessly skimming a bare body. I love this look it often allows the true beauty of the lace or embellishment to pop aesthetically.”

Touches of blue are trending, people are using their dresses to celebrate their tattoos (instead of hiding them), and people are moving back to veils after years of flower crowns being in vogue.

Despite all this, Gwendolynne encourages women to do what feels truly ‘them’. “There are always people selling trends because offering new looks assists to sells magazines and advertising space. But generally I find trends aren’t what brides really want.There’s a LOT of influence & opinions thrown at brides from others, but generally I find girls really look for something that “feels” them and if you are an individual with a true sense of self being trendy might not be important to you. Feeling special and beautiful and comfortable is really the main goal.”

You can find Gwendolynne at 71 Kerr Street, Fitzroy, We have since this article moved upstairs to our beautiful atelier on level 1 above Donna Sheridan.

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