Wedding dresses have held a significant place in fashion for centuries. Marriage is one of the oldest customs across multiple cultures worldwide and has been used as everything from a form of financial security to diplomacy. Wedding dresses have long held a historical place in fashion as a result of their ceremonial standing.

In 1840, when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, she chose a white wedding gown for the occasion, making white the standard wedding dress color in the Western world. Wedding gowns, like all fashion, have been subject to various trends throughout history. Bridal gowns have, at various times, featured intricate designs and silhouettes and shifted toward more minimalist, clean designs.

In the modern twenty-first century, brides have the option of a variety of styles, ranging from sleeveless, strapless, and backless, and also adding details like tulle, appliqués, and embellishments. As long as there are people getting married, there will always be a market for bridal fashion.

In a turn of events, bridal fashion has gone surprisingly mainstream beyond just those preparing to say “I do.” Note that white gowns and evening dresses as daywear and ready-to-wear are nothing new. One of the most famous pictures of Eva Perón, the former first lady of Argentina, depicts her in a cream-colored Dior gown that was eventually reimagined in white for the 2012 Broadway musical revival of Evita, a show based on Perón’s life. Perón became well known for her fashion choices, but little did she know, she was ahead of her time for a woman in the ‘40s and early ‘50s.

Over the past several years, bridal fashion has gone mainstream on the red carpet and as ready-to-wear. It’s easy to wonder where else someone would wear a white statement gown aside from their nuptials, but celebrities were the first to start finding a way. At the 2022 Met Gala, reality star and entrepreneur Kylie Jenner arrived wearing an Off-White wedding gown with a veil and a baseball cap to honor the late fashion designer Virgil Abloh. The dress featured a tiered tulle skirt and a mesh T-shirt with the signature Off-White logo. A similar look closed Abloh’s last fashion show for Off-White before his untimely passing at the age of 40.

Jenner’s look was one of the most talked-about of the night, and it looks like she was a bit of a trendsetter, as a few years later, it’s begun having a trickle-down effect. At this year’s Vanity Fair Oscars Party, actress Heather McMahan wore a Grecian-style white gown with a thigh-high slit from fashion designer Katherine Tash, who is primarily a bridal designer. It was a simple example of how a white wedding gown can be transformed into ready-to-wear with the right accessories, like just enough diamond rings and crystal-encrusted sandals, to become eveningwear.

Tash, who founded her line in 2020, has begun adapting her designs so they can be worn beyond just a wedding day. Many of her bridal offerings are now available in custom colors for eveningwear options, and she’s begun designing some of her corset gowns where the corset separates from the skirt, so the corsets can pair with jeans and other pants for wedding anniversary dinners. It’s a new way of diversifying wedding gowns and getting reuse out of them.

Dua Lipa, who got engaged to actor Callum Turner last year, kicked off her bridal fashion era last month wearing a white Jacquemus dress while she was on vacation with her family in France. While it wasn’t formally a wedding dress, since it also came in black and polka dots, this was a way for Dua Lipa to tease there is potential for her to wear something from Jacquemus’s Le Mariage bridal collection.

The white dress, once reserved for those betrothed, has evolved into a staple for both evening and daytime wear. It is now suitable for any occasion.