HTSI editor’s letter: the (alternative) wedding style special

This week we celebrate a second wedding style special, and offer an alternative take on some of the more traditional shibboleths that make up the nuptial fête. Starting with diamonds: for decades, the classic engagement ring has been defined by the solitaire – a single sparkling white diamond set, as often as not, on a platinum band. The style was near-ubiquitous on fiancéed fingers for many decades until the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales – her blue-sapphire engagement ring (once owned by Diana, Princess of Wales) kick-started a trend for more vintage-looking settings as well as coloured stones. 

Diamonds of all hues are now a regular feature of many high-jewellery collections, with many brides opting for unusual, smoky, opaquely muted diamonds in shades of orange, blue and grey. I was first beguiled by black diamonds while visiting Ruth Tomlinson’s workshop in London; I love the jeweller’s diamond-encrusted pieces that combine precious gems with other, more unlikely stones. I’m likewise very taken with the amber-coloured baubles offered by Tiffany & Co and Harry Winston, shot here by Maxime Poiblanc. In a world in which we still conform unthinkingly to so many standards around the wedding ceremony, it’s exciting to see the growing market for those seeking something new. 

Vintage wedding dresses are often cheaper, more original and more sustainable – but finding them can be a devil

As for something old? We bring you vintage wedding dresses, the popularity of which has also grown of late. Vintage gowns offer many advantages in that they’re often far cheaper, more original and more sustainable than simply buying something off the rack. Finding them, however, can be a devil – and that’s before the necessary alterations – so Zoe Suen has compiled a simple guide of dos and don’ts. As someone who wore their brand-new wedding dress once, before storing it forever in a cardboard box above my wardrobe, I love the idea of a garment enjoying a second life. Moreover, our album of vintage-wearing brides highlights how much more interesting the silhouettes are when you look beyond the rather mundane dresses that make up the majority of store-bought options. Why wear something ordinary when you could find a dress created for Dior by John Galliano or something once fitted by the late, great Lee McQueen?

Lastly, something blue. When Alice Lascelles pitched a column about the popularity of blue cocktails, I assumed she was joking: I associate blue drinks with ’80s discotheques and the very naffest beach bars. Surely no discerning HTSI reader would consider such drinks might be a “thing”? Apparently I am being an appalling snob in my resistance to cerulean temptations, and all the cool kids are sipping on Aegean Negronis and turquoise Margaritas. Mostly it’s a hard pass from me, but then a colleague sent me a picture from outside a bar in Naples offering its patrons goblets of a blue Maradona Spritz. The heady mix of football, alcohol and alpha machismo all stirred together in a vat of toxic-coloured liquid: how could anyone resist? 

@jellison22