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By Georgina Clatworthy



The vintage look is big with wedding designers at the moment, with chic fifties style dresses gracing the catwalks at the recent new season launch. However, if the idea of a truly vintage wedding dress appeals to you then there are a few things you will need to consider.

Firstly you will need to think about which era you want your vintage dress from. I would recommend going back no further than the 1930's as vintage dresses older than this may not be wearable. Other popular era's include the 1940's, 50's, and 60's.

Sourcing your vintage wedding dress can also be tricky but there are a few places you can look. The internet gives us access to vendors around the world when previously it would not have been possible to purchase a vintage 1940's gown from Australia! There are several websites dedicated to vintage clothing and more specifically vintage wedding dresses. Ebay and Etsy are other good sites for vintage dresses and accessories.



Try thrift stores and look out for yard sales and auctions where vintage clothing can often pop up unexpectedly. Scour the local classifieds and if your have friends and family in other locations ask them to look out for you too.

Finding a vintage wedding dress can take time, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time within your wedding planning to find the right dress for you. Finally, ask your friends and relatives if anyone has a vintage wedding dress you could use. Perhaps your grandmother or mother still has her dress and would be only too delighted to let you wear it too.

A word of warning about vintage wedding dresses. In previous decades women tended to be much smaller in terms of dress size than we are today. Whilst it is not impossible to find larger sized wedding dresses of a bygone era, it can be difficult. Pure silk also does not tend to fair well over long periods of time and can become discolored and split as the natural fibers break down. If a dress has been properly stored with acid free papers and kept dry and free from moisture then there is a better chance of it still being wearable.

You may be able to have a vintage dress altered to fit you better, particularly if there is a lot of fabric in the dress. But do find a skilled seamstress to take this on for you. Any alterations to a vintage dress could be obvious is not done correctly because of color differences in threads and fabrics.

If you cannot find a vintage wedding dress to fit or suit you then you still have other options. Many of the major dress pattern makers release their vintage designs, including wedding dresses, to the market and there are also vintage pattern libraries online where you can find authentic and original wedding dress patterns.

As mentioned at the beginning many of the major designers are designing styles with vintage looks in mind and you will find many different dresses to choose from. You could also look at theatre costumes and top end fancy dress stores, if you can find a store that supplies or stocks dresses used in films and TV then you could strike gold!