Wedding season is officially here, so we now have the perfect excuse to get all dressed up in a gorgeous new frock and dance the night away, Champagne in hand, with our nearest and dearest.
But the one downside of being invited to a wedding is finding yourself all of a sudden having to navigate the style politics that come with attending such an event.
First, there’s the dress code – does anyone ever know what lounge suit even means?
Then, we have to find something in our wardrobes that is chic, appropriate and comfortable enough to see us through from the afternoon ceremony to the late-night dancefloor session.
And there’s one question that always comes up every wedding season – is it OK to wear black to a wedding?
Traditionally, it was seen as impolite to wear black to a wedding.
But now, with celebs like Naomi Campbell and Meghan Markle donning fabulous black designer dresses to attend some of the most traditional nuptials around – aka royal weddings – plus the overall relaxation of strict dress codes in 2019, surely it’s totally acceptable now, right?
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We asked celebrity stylist Donny Galella for a straight answer. Donny counts women including Home and Away star Ada Nicodemou, former Miss Universe Australia Tegan Martin, model Erin Holland and former MAFS bride Jules Robinson among his A-grade clients.
He says you can absolutely get away with wearing black to a wedding.
“You totally can!” Donny said.
“You can never go wrong with a classic LBD [little black dress]. You definitely wear black to wedding.”
Hallelujah!
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Donny says the only hard and fast dress rule at weddings these days is that you cannot wear white.
“The main thing is not to wear white, so you don’t take away from the bride,” he said.
“Try to avoid anything that’s too similar to white, so ivory or off white. Pastels are a huge trend right now, so I think it’s fine to wear pastel pink, pastel blue, pastel apricot, that’s totally cool. Just don’t delve into the whites.”
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There is a growing trend of brides asking their bridesmaids to also wear white on their big day, which Donny says is the only exception to the “no white” rule.
“If the bride is happy to share her glory with her bridesmaids, that’s awesome,” he said.
But as a guest, not a bridesmaid, you still need to steer clear of white.”