The New Face of Bridal Wear

Cotton Wedding Dress Designers Marry Beauty and Originality

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(ARA) - There's a new trend brewing in the world of bridal wear and, true to its own subtle style, it's making small waves and catching one bride at a time. The trend is cotton wedding dresses in a variety of different fabrics ranging from piqu—, dotted Swiss and eyelet to stretch denim. Fresh, functional and most importantly, original, these cotton designs are as distinctive in style and fabric as the brides who wear them.

Christina Dalle Pezze designer and owner of Simple Silhouettes, strongly agrees. A firm believer in the less is more theory, she describes her creations as "classic, modern and sleek. They're wedding dresses as opposed to wedding gowns," she explains. Pezze's foray into design began six years ago when several friends asked her to create their bridesmaids dresses. "At the time most things were Little Bo Peep dresses with lots of ruffles or else purple polyester dresses with jewels on them," she recalls.

It wasn't long before this former Wall Street accountant set about to create a new standard in bridal party wear. She named her company Simple Silhouettes and offered just that -- clean, basic designs based on a half dozen shapes in a variety of fabrics. Three years later, Pezze added wedding dress designer to her list of accomplishments.

"I've always been attracted to natural fibers," says Pezze. "Cotton is beautiful. It's bright white and very fresh." She cites her fashion icons as Jackie O. and Audrey Hepburn and designs her wedding dresses to reflect what she describes as this "classic, all-American style." The bride who wears her cotton creations is down to earth and often planning a summer outdoor ceremony or reception. A cotton wedding dress thus gives her the elegant, clean lines she seeks without sacrificing comfort.

Just like in science, in bridal fashion, for every cotton wedding dress design there is an equal and opposite design. Case in point, the sexy, romantic designs of designer Edgardo Bonilla. "My dresses have a sophisticated and modern look for girls who are very style conscious and looking for something completely different," says this Puerto Rican designer. "They're also sensual, romantic and very feminine."

A graduate of Miami's famed International Fine Arts College, Bonilla got his start designing his own ready-to-wear line in the United States. Upon returning to his native San Juan in the 1990s, Bonilla started generating a buzz; before long he was designing evening gowns for wealthy, private clients including a gown worn by Marc Anthony's wife, Dayanara Torres, during her reign as Miss Universe. "Many of my clients had daughters getting married so I started taking requests for wedding dresses for them," he says, "I was fascinated with the fabrics, laces and beading."

Today, Bonilla seeks to set himself apart from other wedding dress designers by working with a variety of silhouettes and fabrics and cotton is a perfect fit. "I like the texture of cotton and combining different textures like heavy twill next to a silk satin. It's that mix of the unexpected that makes the gown interesting," he explains. Add to that the Latin flavor he incorporates into his designs and the results are sexy and unique looks for fashion-forward brides of any age.

The designer enjoys working with cotton so much, in fact, that he's already planning his next move. "Cotton is so comfortable and airy," he explains, "and with a little bit of stretch it provides a really great fit, especially around the torso so I'd like to create with cotton knit or a cotton/linen blend next," he muses. In the meantime, his denim designs have made quite an impact on the world of bridal fashion. "I got a lot of [press] coverage because these dresses were so unexpected," he explains with pride.

So if variety is the spice of life then cotton fabric is the fabric of choice for brides seeking to set themselves apart from the crowd. In addition to providing a refreshing lightness and dance-all-night comfort, this natural fiber offers unsurpassed versatility from texture and design to weight and color. The result is a look that's unique to each bride -- the epitome of personalization and a true reflection of who she is. And, after all, why not? Isn't that what separates one wedding from the next?

For more information on Simple Silhouettes, visit www.Simpledress.com. To obtain information on designs by Edgardo Bonilla, call (856) 779-0009.

Courtesy of ARA Content