0127BridesmaidAUD
Tom Nardone, founder of UglyDress.com , talk about some of the worst dresses he's seenFor some of us, wedding season brings up feelings of disdain for women we would normally call friends.
When did a burgundy velour dress shaped like curtains become perfect for a bridesmaid dress?
"It was horrible," said bride-to-be Jennifer Branch of a dress she wore a couple years ago. "It was two-piece and the bottom was velour to the ankles ... it looked like something from the early ’90s. And then the top ... looked like curtains. It was burgundy and it had some kind of flower pattern on it. It was bunchy and just didn’t fit good and everyone hated it."
Which left Branch thinking what many a bridesmaid has thought over the years: "I don’t know what she was thinking with that."
So as Branch thought about the dresses for her wedding, she wanted to "try and fit everyone’s body style."
"I wanted something that people would like and they wouldn’t be embarrassed to wear," she said. "You have to be considerate of them because they are standing up there, too."
Branch, who will be married to Brad Farrell on July 12 in Dahlonega, chose turquoise, strapless, tea-length dresses for her seven bridesmaids.
"The color was the main thing, and I wanted something that the girls could wear afterward," Branch said. "I think that is very important not to waste all this money on something that you would never wear again."
Which is why Branch said she chose a style that could be used for more than a wedding.
"It’s really cute and you could easily wear it to a formal, like a sorority dance or something. It’s flowy and airy and it should be nice for the summer and it’s just cute."
Color and style are two ways a dress can go from pretty to putrid. This sentiment was echoed by another Gainesville bride-to-be, Allison Grizzle, who said she thinks bridesmaid dresses should focus on simplicity.
"I don’t like doodads like bows. I just like them to be solid and plain," she said. "To me, a strapless, or a spaghetti strap would be OK, straight to the floor or to the knee. I like it to be simple.
"I guess if the dress is just really ugly, if it doesn’t look right on me, if it’s not my color, I probably would think that is a really bad bridesmaid dress."
Grizzle decided on royal blue, strapless, tea-length dresses for her two bridesmaids and junior bridesmaid. She is set to be married on May 24 to Christopher Honeycutt in Gainesville.
Jenia Hamley, owner of Charme Bridal and Prom in Buford, recommended that the bride focus on her own dress first, then look at bridesmaid dresses that complement the style. She also advised brides-to-be to keep an eye on color and hemline trends.
"Definitely the bride needs to buy her gown first," Hamley said. "You don’t want to overstate her dress at all. Of course (think about) location, weather and time of day."
Hamley said this season has some definite style and color trends.
"For this spring, purple is definitely a hot color in everything," she said. "Purples and pink ... and clover green. Those are our best-selling colors right now. A lot of girls are going for the shorter dresses, the tea-length dresses, in our store anyway.
"Taffeta is really hot for this season; all the bridal lines are putting out taffeta," Hamley added.
David’s Bridal separates the spring 2008 trends into three categories on its Web site: Garden Delights, Destination: Romance and Black and White.
Garden Delights focuses on traditional ball gowns that are elegant and glamorous. Popular colors in this line range from pale to rich and dark. Destination: Romance captures the idea of the destination wedding, complete with tropical feel and fresh, bright colors. The Black and White line suggests a modern theme with empire waist styles with an array of fabrics.
But there are always styles to stay away from.
"They’ve put out some of the balloon bottom dresses ... they don’t fit a lot of body types," Hamley said.
Tom Nardone, the creator of UglyDress.com, said bad bridesmaid dresses crop up easily in many colors, but mainly in green.
Nardone, of Hazel Park, Mich., said he created the Web site after creating www.bachelorette.com. He kept running across pictures of bad bridesmaid dresses, he said, and wanted a place to show them.
"(Green) matches in a winter wedding; they may wear white and green to match the outdoors," he said. "Or, if they choose a strange color flower, you can always go with green to match the leaves of the stems."
But he added that bridesmaid dresses aren’t necessarily chosen for their looks. "When a bride is choosing the bridesmaid dresses, she is just picturing them as part of the scenery," he said.
"She’s going to choose the shape and the cut of the dress and she has a number of bridesmaids ... when the different body shapes get taken into account, someone always gets left hanging."