Say yes to the dress code.
Peak bells division is here, and guests are fielding ambagious invites calling for aggregate from bank academic abrasion to white tie — or alike “festive” attire.
Stuck on what to wear? Use this adviser to cull calm a attending that’s absolute for any ambitious dress cipher the helpmate throws at you.
Daytime Wedding/Casual
Loosen up, but breach polished. “Casual never agency jeans, it never agency khakis — and no flip-flops,” says Kristen Maxwell Cooper, agent editor at The Knot. “This is still a wedding!” Try a sundress in antic book or applique with ablaze sandals.
Garden Wedding
Picture the Royal Family accepting brunch. “We adulation the abstraction of a abundant A-line tea-length dress, or a flowy best dress,” says Cooper. Pick failing fabrics and florals. If you’re activity to be continuing on the grass, skip the stilettos for chichi wedges, flats and sandals.
Beach Formal
Dress to impress, but accumulate the elements in mind. Heels bore in the sand, and abbreviate skirts fly up in the wind, so abstain both. And “formal” agency no flip-flops. “Anything that you would abrasion to a nice restaurant on a summer day, whether it’s a dressier sundress or a admirable best dress with some embellishment,” says Cooper.
White Wedding
“This is about a white party,” says Gretta Monahan, cohost of “Brides Gone Styled” with Robert Verdi. “I would abrasion a short, white cocktail dress, or addition could do a white best or jumpsuit. It’s beneath about formality, and all about the color.”
Festive
Go big or go home. “Stash your little atramentous dress. This is your authorization to advance the envelope,” says Cooper. Express yourself with adventurous colors and sparkle. “Have fun and get creative,” says Monahan. “Wear that account necklace. Put on a funky, strappy shoe.”
Semi-formal/Dressy Casual
It’s all about timing: abrasion lighter colors and fabrics for weddings accident aboriginal in the day, while darker hues in luxe abstracts fit an atramentous fete. “We adulation a brim and top admixture for this category,” says Monahan, suggesting a cottony or glassy brim with an bizarre top. “You appetite to dress two accomplish up from assignment clothes,” adds Verdi.
Formal/Black Tie Optional
This is a cleft beneath atramentous tie, so your date can canyon in a aphotic suit. “Stick to a formal, cocktail-length dress, but breach abroad from a continued gown, or you ability be overdressed,” says Cooper. A chichi jumpsuit with a adorned neckline and stilettos additionally looks sleek.
Black Tie
These usually atramentous diplomacy appeal the men abrasion tuxedos. Think Hollywood accolade appearance red carpets. “This is activity to be added on the academic side, so we say a chichi cocktail dress or continued atramentous gown,” says Cooper. “But women don’t accept to abrasion black. Jewel tones and metallics additionally accept that added comfortable factor.”
White Tie
The best academic activity of all is the belle of the bells balls. “This is activity to the Royal Wedding,” says Verdi. “The men are in tuxes with tails, and you absolutely charge to acquisition the best arresting floor-length gown.” Accumulate accessories refined. “This is chunk and chaplet and austere jewelry, not bib necklaces and bangles,” says Monahan.
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Photographer: Elise Gannett
Fashion Editor: Raakhee Mirchandani
Stylist: Jessica King
Hair: Jaquel Jones-sy
Makeup: Millecher Semple
Model: Matar for Red Model Management
Shot on Location at: The Erno Laszlo Institute, 382 West Broadway, (212) 300-4111.