Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split

Rhetoric of Speech and Writing

Mentor: dr. sc. Melanija Marui
Students: Ivan Berecka, Andrea Munjiza

The Rhetoric of the Wedding Dress

Split, June 2015

For a great number of women in today's world, regardless of geography or cultural

context, there are very few clothing items, or none at all, which bear as much personal
significance and symbolic value as the wedding dress. Throughout history, the wedding dress
has served as much more than a ceremonial garment. It has been a kind of canvas upon which
were traced not only the identity of the bride, but also the identity of her community, through
the use of symbolic colors, shapes, and ornamentation. Through the examination of different
wedding dress styles, this paper aims to show how this particular item of clothing has a dual
nature. On the one hand, more traditional garments often symbolically showcase the cultural
identity of the society in question, as will be shown in the examples of traditional Maasai,
Moroccan, and Indian attire. On the other hand, wedding dresses in modern society have
become another means of expressing one's lifestyle, personal taste and aesthetic, which is
apparent in a great deal of wedding dress ads in Western society. In either case, we wish to
further point out that the wedding dress is a special item to the extent that it provides a unique
opportunity for women to assert their presence and dominate space, if even for a fleeting few
hours, in a way which is usually reserved for men. Given the history of the wedding dress as
primarily a symbol of innocence and purity, it is interesting that in today's society it is
becoming a source of empowerment and self-acknowledgement, and it is this phenomenon
that we wish to emphasize.
1. Wedding Dress as Cultural Symbol
1.1.
The Maasai1:
For an example of how the wedding dress can portray cultural, tribal or
national identity, while simultaneously almost nullifying the identity of the
woman, we turn our attention to traditional Maasai attire:

1 http://beadsofesiteti.com/symbolism-of-maasai-jewelry/

The above image displays how in Maasai society, the traditional wedding garment
includes a variety of colorful ornaments, jewelry, and beaded collars, all of which have a
specific meaning. Specifically, the beaded wedding collar represents the entire village as well
as the dowry, that is to say the abundance of cattle which will be given for the bride.
Furthermore, each particular color worn by the bride symbolizes different concepts or aspects
of Maasai life. For instance, red represents bravery, strength, and the everyday challenges of
Maasai life. Blue symbolizes energy, sustenance, and the color of the sky which provide the
water for the people and their cattle. Orange symbolizes warmth, friendship, generosity and
hospitality, as well as the traditional orange gourd which is used to share milk with guests and
visitors to one's home. The Maasai wedding dress is obviously highly elaborate, but in all its
complexity it seems to completely drown out the personality of the bride herself.
Morocco2
Another interesting example of a high degree of symbolism in wedding dresses

1.2.

can be found in Moroccan culture.

2 http://marriage.sudesh-kumar.com/

As we can see, the bride wears an intricate dress called a Kaftan, most commonly
in shades of green and gold, the former representing plantlife and good luck, and
the latter is meant to ward off evil spirits. However, the most intriguing part of the
traditional Moroccan wedding outfit is the floral and geometrical henna designs
drawn on the bride's hands. Often the name of the groom is ''hidden'' within these
drawings. While perhaps not as overtly symbolic as the Maasai dress, the
Moroccan style is interesting for the subtlety with which the bride is quite literally
branded by the name of her betrothed.
1.3.

3 Ibid.

Hindu dress3

In Hindu tradition, great significance is given to the color red, which signifies both
sensuality and purity4. The bride wears a red sari, and also red powder in the
parting of her hair. There is also the henna body art called mehndi drawn on the
bride's hands which symbolizes the ''awakening of inner light''. The bride is
ceremoniously decorated by her friends and family, which shows that a Hindu
wedding is a community experience in which those close to the bride adorn her
with their shared heritage.
The examples given above were selected in order to show some clear instances where the
wedding dress is primarily a representation of cultural belonging and shared societal values, at
the expense of the expression of one's individuality. As we can see from the selected images,
the features of a traditional wedding dress in these societies almost completely occlude the
bride's body. The significance of color, shapes, textures, and various kinds of decoration,
bears more semiotic value for the bride's society or community than for her as an individual,
as she becomes a vehicle for the perpetuation of cultural values and heritage. However, we
4 http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/meaning-ofdifferent-colours-in-hinduism/

should not hastily judge this as a form of oppression because we need to be careful not to
allow our Western worldviews to blind us to the fact that the women (brides) themselves can
and likely do take great pride in performing this role and see it as a great honor.

2. The Shift in the Symbolism of the Western Wedding Dress

2.1.
Wedding dress then:
Contemporary versions of the selected wedding dresses which do not share the
properties of their traditional counterparts naturally exist. However, the change in the
symbolism of a wedding gown is perhaps most readily apparent in its Western variant.
Initially, just like its Indian equivalent, the Western gown was heavily laden with cultural
symbolism: ''The rite of a white wedding dress came from the princes' palaces and only spread
slowly at the beginning of the 19's century. Only at the beginning of the 1920's white wedding
fashion represents the bourgeois-churchly moral, the virginity of the bride which equates
purity. The lifting of the veil was part of ancient wedding ritual, symbolizing the groom taking
possession of the wife or the revelation of the bride by her parents to the groom for his
approval. An opulent veil was supposed to enwrap the bride like a precious present''5. Along
with the veil, the modesty of the woman was preserved by unrevealing dress, which very
often covered their arms, shoulders and cleavage, as presented in the following image:

5 https://www.marryjim.com/en/page/show/id/30/template/history

2.2.

Wedding dress now:

However, along with the occurence of a consumerist capitalist society, the wedding
dress has undergone an essential transformation. In additon to being a ceremonial robe, it has
become a powerful medium for the expression of one's own lifestyle and sense of self. As the
famous wedding dress designer Vera Wang once said, ''When I decided to get married at 40, I
couldn't find a dress with the modernity or sophistication I wanted. That's when I saw the
opportunity for a wedding gown business.''6 In modern times, wedding gowns are marketed
just like any other ready-made consumer product, based on the notion that the products we
buy help to convey our personalities to the outside world. However, we may ask ourselves if it
is really the case that today's market allows one to truly express one's uniqueness, or if that is
purely an illusion perpetuated by advertisers in order to convince consumers that they are in
control of their own self-expression. In other words, is it rather the case that we, as
consumers, are given a choice between a limited number of prefabricated trends and lifestyles,
6 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/gown.html

under the pretense that the choice is purely our own7. Even if our behavior as consumers is
predetermined and manipulated to a certain degree, we haven't been completely stripped of
our right to choose one option over another (it is even becoming more common for a woman
to make or commission a custom-made dress). Take, for example, the following ads:

The ad on the left is presumably aimed at a younger, more open-minded female

demographic girls who feel uninhibited and adventurous. These character traits are implied
both by the model's pose and the worn down leather boot. The message is then amplified by
the simple slogan ''Have it your way'', which unquestionably points to the fact that the shared
cultural assumption today is that the wedding dress, as well as the wedding itself, should be a
celebration of the bride as an individual. The principle of diversity inherent in today's
economy has extended into the wedding industry, which now strives to cater to more and

7 For a more detailed analysis of the nature of the modern market, see Adam
Curtis' documentary series The Century of the Self

more alternative subcultures, such as the steampunk style shown in the image to the right,
which may include items such as corsets, top hats, chains, pocket watches, etc.
The attitude toward wedding dresses in contemporary Western society is perhaps summed up
by Susanne Friese when she proclaims that ''the most important criterion for selecting the
wedding dress is for it to reflect all aspects of the womens self-concept and not merely the
bridal role, which is just but one part of it.''8 Not only is the wedding dress perceived as an
outward representation of the bride's personality, the very quest for the perfect dress, often
referred to as ''the one'', has become a ritual in its own right, an activity where the male
presence is, for once, unwanted and unneeded. Whether traditional or contemporary, the
wedding dress unfailingly draws attention to the bride, making her the focal point of the
whole community for a certain amount of time. It is for these reasons that we have chosen to
devote some attention to this particular atrticle of clothing, because of its potential to
temporarily subvert patriarchal social structures. This subversion is first and foremost
achieved by a simple taking up of space and drawing attention to the woman. If the bride is
able to muster up the courage to assert herself and her personality in such an environment
where her presence is the focal point of her immediate community, then that can hopefully
serve as a stimulus to continue that self-assertion in the marital life that follows. In
conclusion, in a time when the fight for equal gender rights is far from over, we believe it is
important to acknowledge the rhetorical power of clothing in general, with wedding dresses
being just one potent example of how clothes are able to speak volumes when the wearer is
not.

8 Susanne Friese. "The Wedding Dress: From Use Value to Sacred Object."
Through the Wardrobe: Womens Relationship with Clothes. Ed. Ali Guy, Eileen
Green i Maura Banim. Oxford. 2001. pg 63