Trivia bit for the day

[missroserose]

The origin of the white wedding gown, no matter what you may have heard, had absolutely nothing to do with virginity, purity, or anything else along those lines (though obviously it picked up those associations later). The white wedding dress, an affectation of middle and upper class Victorian English families, was simply a display of wealth - white was an utterly impractical color (given how any kind of stain or soil shows up on it) and therefore the ability to buy such fabric and have a totally impractical dress made that the bride would wear exactly once was a rather extreme form of conspicious consumption. Similarly, bell sleeves (although much older than the Victorian period) came into fashion as a way to show off how much fabric one could afford to waste on frills.

That said, I totally want one of these:



Of course, with a gown like that, I'd need someone to come sweep me off my feet so I'd have a chance to actually wear it for its intended purpose...any takers? =D