Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split

Rhetoric of Speech and Writing

Mentor: dr. sc. Melanija Marušić

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.

1.2. Morocco2

Another interesting example of a high degree of symbolism in wedding dresses

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. Hindu dress3

3 Ibid.

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 should not hastily judge this as a form of oppression because we need

4 http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/meaning-of-different-colours-in-hinduism/

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

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.

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

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 women’s 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: Women’s Relationship with Clothes. Ed. Ali Guy, Eileen Green i Maura Banim. Oxford. 2001. pg 63