5 historic wedding dresses we wish Meghan Markle had worn

Bustles, bonnets and chin-tickling necklines… Following Saturday’s big reveal, we had a rummage through our favourite historic wardrobes for wedding dresses of the past.

As the bunting is unstrung and the last of the confetti swept away, there is one image that is sure to endure: Meghan Markle, aglow in her thoroughly modern gown. British designer Clare Waight Keller created a wedding dress that was fresher than fresh; its lines were clean and its temperament unfussy – no punishing corset, no lace, no frippery. 

It is hard to imagine a dress that is more of its time and its place. To put this to the test, we had a rummage through the wardrobes of some of our favourite museums and stately homes, to see what Meghan might have chosen in centuries gone by. 
What if Meghan had chosen:

1) A frilly confection 

This Victorian wedding dress, which we encountered at The Bowes Museum, would have been the height of fashion in the 1870s, when it was made. Where Saturday’s dress was the epitome of minimalist purity, here we have sheer maximalism – full bustle, elaborately draped overskirt and foaming sea of ruche and frill. Those bows…

Image: Wedding Dress, 1878 – 1872, English © The Bowes Museum​

2) A Brontë bonnet 

Meghan’s 16-foot tulle wedding veil, studded with hand-embroidered flowers from each of the 53 countries in the Commonwealth, was a chapel-length delight. When Charlotte Brontë was married on 29 June 1854 to Arthur Bell Nicholls, she wore this delightful bonnet of white lace, trimmed with green flowers. In 1857, Mrs Gaskell wrote that Brontë looked ‘like a snow-drop,' with her ‘white bonnet trimmed with green leaves, which perhaps might suggest the resemblance to the pale wintry flower’. 

Image: Charlotte Brontë’s wedding bonnet and veil, 1854 © Brontë Parsonage Museum

3) A peachy masterpiece 

Before Queen Victoria popularised the white wedding dress – then an unusual choice – in February 1840, bridal gowns came in every colour of the rainbow. We love this pale-orange affair, which we found at Killerton House, and is said to have been worn by Alice Westcott – though it may have clashed with the Queen’s lime green and purple number, should Prince Harry’s bride have chosen it… 

Image: Wedding dress, 1770s, said to have been worn by Alice Westcott, Killerton Costume Collection at Killerton, Devon​

4) Shades of grey 

Clare Waight Keller’s royal wedding design was as pure as a jug of water – not a frill nor a button in sight. This Victorian gown, with its triple rows of silk buttons, pleats, princess line, full overskirt and rich taffeta, would have epitomised mid-19th-century tastes – and perhaps made it rather hot to wear in the summer sun.

Image: © National Trust / Sophia Farley & Renée Harvey​

5) 1970s chin-tickler 

Meghan’s gown had the simplest of cuts and an open bateau neckline, allowing for flashes of collarbone – and ensuring that nothing detracted from that tiara. What if she had gone for this chin-tickler of a design – a 1970s georgette piece with a flared skirt and train? 

Image: ​© National Trust / Sophia Farley & Renée Harvey