Reflections | Why has Chinese wedding fashion gone full Western? And will hanfu sweep it aside?
Chinese brides used to wear black, then red, before the Western white gown became ubiquitous. Some push back now and don hanfu bridal wear
I was invited to wedding dress fittings at a couple of bridal shops last week because my niece is getting married later this year.
I had never been to wedding dress fittings before, and I was slightly overwhelmed by the rivers of tulle and organza in the shops.
Individual wedding parties were sequestered in their private enclosures, with plush settees, heavy curtains and cups of tea. It felt like the setting of a couturier’s atelier in the early 20th century, a time when “models” referred not to the malnourished women on whom the dresses were displayed, but to the dresses themselves. In fact, in one of the shops we visited, every dress had a name, like Ikea furniture.
I acquired a brand new vocabulary, words like “mermaid fit”, “fit and flare” and something called a “puddle train”, which has nothing to do with embarrassing accidents.
Seeing the racks of dresses in so many different shades of white got me thinking: why have the Chinese – not just in Singapore but all over the world – embraced European-style wedding costumes with so much enthusiasm?
It is not that marrying couples of other ethnic groups do not wear frou-frou gowns and suits and ties, but a quick mental survey of Asian countries would suggest that the Chinese are singularly keen on the full Western wedding package – more so than, say, Indians, Japanese or Malays.
