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FeedAnd the Bride Wore Green
The surprising evolution—or de-evolution—of the wedding gown.
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Delicate vines and silk flowers flow from the strapless, ruched bodice to encircle the waist and gather on the train. This is the gown Courtney Finneran wore for her wedding at the Old Mill in Rose Valley in August 2009. The gown is elegant, fun—and eco-friendly. Created from vegetable-dyed silk, the dress was handmade using fair labor practices.
“You would never know that it’s a ‘green’ dress,” says Finneran. “You don’t look at it and think, ‘It’s an eco-friendly dress.’ You look at it and think, ‘That’s an amazingly beautiful dress.’ And that’s why I chose it. I live a very green life, but I still wanted a gorgeous gown.”
Eco-friendly wedding gowns have evolved from their beginnings as burlap sacks and “kumbaya” caftans. Advances in textiles have created better materials with which designers are creating wedding gowns that look much more classical and far less bohemian.
Deborah Lindquist uses repurposed materials and organic linens to create her Hollywood-glam bridal line. For her wedding gowns, Morgan Boszilkov works with hemp blends and peace silk harvested from something akin to free-range worms. Rai-Lynne Broach’s Threadhead Creations line incorporates bamboo, charmeuse hemp and silk blends. Finneran’s gown came from eco-bride pioneer Adele Wechsler, who uses vegetable-dyed silk and peace silk, organic hemp and fabric remnants.
Material isn’t the only thing that makes a wedding gown eco-friendly. What matters is not just what it’s made of—but how it’s made. “The principles of eco-consciousness include fair labor practices, reusable materials and locally grown or locally made products that cut down on fossil fuels burned in transport,” says Lisa Longo, proprietress of Earth Bridal, the eco-boutique nestled inside Nestology in King of Prussia Mall.
Earth Bridal is the descendant of Earth Mart, Longo’s now-shuttered store in Phoenixville. Earth Mart is where Finneran spotted her dream gown. “I knew from the beginning that I would have a green wedding, but I didn’t expect to find a green wedding dress,” says Finneran, an environmental planner who lives in West Chester. “On a whim, I stopped at Earth Mart. This was after first trying traditional wedding boutiques and being disappointed with the choices.”
But love didn’t come cheap. “The dress was out of my price range,” Finneran says. “My mother and my stepmother stepped in and helped pay for the dress. We split the cost into thirds. That made it kind of special, too—that it was from both of them, and me.”
Laura Boyce is marrying Jeff Barge next month at his parents’ home in Bryn Mawr. When Boyce, 24, considered wearing her grandmother’s gown, her family was thrilled at the possibility of the gown seeing its third wedding.
Boyce’s grandmother and mother both had been married in the dress, but it was Boyce’s grandfather who urged her to wear the gown. “My grandmother passed away two years ago,” Boyce says. “I was told that wearing it would make him very happy.”
