Can we get married just to wear one?
Calling all brides who don’t want to blow their entire wedding budget on the dress: the quirky, cool, ready-to-wear brand Self-Portrait is launching a bridal range, and the dresses are as glorious as you’d imagine, for a fraction of the price a designer dress would usually cost.
Looking to appeal to the ‘untraditional bride’, the six dresses on offer fuse modern shapes with vintage details, and range from high-necked column gowns to off-the-shoulder, chiffon, ankle-skimming dresses.
Other dresses have Victorian-style collars, sheer sleeves, guipure lace and pleated skirts, incorporating the kind of intricate detail and quirky touches that have made the brand so popular since its launch.
Founder Han Chong, who studied fashion design at Central Saint Martins started the business in 2013, said he was inspired by the style of the 1960s and 1970s, and in particular fashion rule-breakers like Bianca Jagger and Pattie Boyd.
Chong is also determined that the wearers of his designs won’t relegate his dresses to a box in the attic; the gowns have been made to be worn for years to come, wedding or not.
‘Women spend so much money on a dress they’ll wear once, I wanted to create a dress they can wear again and again and again,’ Chong told The Telegraph.
The brand, which are so popular Selfridges sells one of their dresses every six minutes, will be launching both in the Oxford Street department store, and also on Net A Porter and the Self-Portrait website, with the bridal collection launching in February and prices varying from £650 to £1000.
Those who are already married will be sure to wish these dresses had been around when they tied the knot, while those who had sworn off ever getting married must surely be reconsidering.
The great thing about these timeless dresses, though, is that wedding or not, you really could wear them again and again.
Scroll through the gallery above to see the six dresses on offer, and let us know what you think of them at @marieclaireuk.
