If your dress didn’t have ruffles, did you even get married in the 80s? I also feel like those fans were everywhere back then. It’s like they made too many and made every bride use one! That is a 1983 ad for Eve of Milady, and it has ruffles, a fan, a hat, AND a bridesmaid in pink lurking in the back (I love her). We already did the 1980s bridal hairstyles and the 1980s wedding cakes, so the dresses were always next. (If you got married in the seventies, your decade is over here.)
Same rules as last time: these are actual ads from Bride’s and Modern Bride (plus a few dresses that made it into museums), not the family album. Count how many of these your dress had! Five or more? You were a 1980s bride. Ten? Your mom still has it in a box in the closet, and we would like to see it.
One woman who bought her own eighties gown secondhand summed up the whole decade in a sentence: “The 80s wedding dresses may be derided for being meringues now but I think it was a decade of indulging in the fairytale wedding. They were a fantasy that would always mark the day out as being special. And why not, life was so grim at times, we needed the fantasy.” Another bride posted her own late-eighties checklist and it reads like a table of contents for what we’re about to see: “The sweetheart neckline ✅ The Leg-o-mutton sleeves ✅ The bustle ✅ The meringue ✅”
Between the hairstyles and all the fabric, it’s surprising everyone was able to squeeze into the photo! This is actually a Dutch press photo of twenty women dressed as brides for an art event in November 1988, but I swear it looks like every bridal party photo from that year. Keep scrolling and you’ll spot every single thing below in it somewhere!
Puff Sleeves You Could Store Snacks In
The puff sleeves were really a sight to see back then. Though the more I look at them, the more I sort of love it, especially the one on the right. (Left is a leg-of-mutton, right is a straight puff, and both are the size of her head.)
One daughter who tried on her mom’s dress got this comment: “Omg. You could make a second dress with the sleeve alone!” And under a 1985 Modern Bride spread: “I need more sleeve on those. MORE SLEEVE!”
And then there were the drop waists and the flower crowns that went all the way down to your ears. These looks took confidence, and 80s brides honestly rocked it. This P.C. Mary’s ad from 1988 pretty much has the whole article in it: the shine, the beading, the V-point waist, the scalloped hem. We’ll get to all of it!
The sleeves are also the first thing to go when a daughter wears the dress today. “I’m currently in the process of having my mom’s dress altered and the biggest pain has been trying to get rid of those puffy sleeves,” one daughter reported. Not everyone takes them off, though. “Call me crazy but I like the puffy sleeves. I wore my mom’s wedding dress from 1987 when I got married and kept the puff sleeves.”
Princess Diana Did It First
Princess Diana’s wedding dress, designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, was really the style everyone wanted to copy (minus the twenty-five feet of train). Ivory silk taffeta, ten thousand pearls and sequins, and 750 million people watching. One woman who watched it live remembered: “It was so striking as she emerged from the carriage. We’d had three decades of slender wedding dresses and this one was so voluminous. Also the cream colour suited her complexion beautifully.”
Here is an aerial view of the famous train. (The White House photographer was in London that day, since Nancy Reagan attended, which is how this ended up in the U.S. National Archives.) Nobody at the mall went twenty-five feet, but everybody went cathedral. “Married in ’89,” one woman began. “My dress was puffy at the shoulders. No big butt bow; however, the cathedral length train bustled up. My bridesmaids wore teal matching dresses.”
“July 1984: I wore a knock off Princess Diana style wedding dress that cost $200. I had a perm and did my own hair, painted my own nails. Bridesmaids wore pink dresses my mom made. Groom had a perm too and wore an all white tux, groomsmen wore black pants, white jackets and pink cummerbunds.”
— via Reddit.com
That is one 1984 bride on Reddit, and there were thousands of her. As another commenter put it, “People I know who got married in the same era all had variations on her dress.” (One more, for the Disney kids: “Years later when Disney made the animated little mermaid, ariel’s wedding dress was modeled off Diana’s.” We can neither confirm nor deny, but go look at Ariel’s sleeves.)
Fun fact: Sarah Ferguson’s 1986 gown had bows on the sleeves, bumblebees beaded into the bodice, and a seventeen-foot train, and at least one person on Reddit is Team Fergie: “I think I preferred Sarah Ferguson’s wedding dress to Diana’s!”
The Drop Waist and the Basque V
These dresses cost somewhere around $435. I don’t even think we could make it for that price! It says so right on the page: “approximately $435” and “approximately $425,” which is somewhere around $1,200 today. See that low, pointed waistline? That’s the basque waist, and by 1988 it was on almost every gown in the magazine. (Dress shopping has changed a LOT since then. Read the things nobody tells you before you go.)
The Reddit price reports line up with the ad. “1983: Splurged on an off-the-rack wedding dress ($300),” one woman remembered. Another: “My wedding in 1985 was huge… The only thing I knew at the time was that my dress was $700.” A 1989 bride paid the most: “Silk satin House of Bianchi basque waisted gown- in candlelight. Mom made my head dress and veil . Cost 1k in 1989.” And then there was the JCPenney route, which a LOT of you took: “It was 1987 and I wore a wedding dress from the JC Penney catalog!”
Same waist, same sleeves… it was definitely a formula back then, and it worked. Private Label by G, same year, same marbled backdrop. Flip through any 1987 issue of Bride’s and I promise you’ll find two brides in front of a cloud on every third page.
It’s so funny how the groom’s suit still looks like a classic, but that ruched satin drop waist dress does not. This pair is on mannequins at a “Young in the 80s” exhibition at a museum in Odense, Denmark, and the double-breasted suit could walk into a wedding this weekend. The dress would need a minute.
High Necks and Victorian Lace (the Early-Eighties Look)
Gunne Sax was a clothing brand founded in the late 60s and brought to fame by Jessica McClintock that specialized in a sort of “prairie-style” look with Victorian embellishments. I’ve definitely seen this clothing style make a comeback. This ad ran in Bride’s in August 1983 with copy that reads like a diary entry: “As if a marvelous, magical wand waved my imaginings to life … the vision of the bride I dreamed to be is really me …”
This is the dress people mean when they say “Gunne Sax.” One bride paid “I think about $100” for hers in 1983 and got married in a city rose garden. Another still has her Laura Ashley: “A 100% cotton, brocade Laura Ashley wedding dress. It had big, poofy sleeves and a Princess waste line. It was very understated and just beautiful. I still have it!”
This one is clearly a carryover from the 70s with a nod to what was ahead. Somebody bought this at a bridal boutique in Newcastle, England in 1981, and it ended up on a mannequin at a cathedral exhibition (I love that people save these!). High neck, long lace sleeves, and a little more shoulder than a 1979 dress would have dared.
Fabric, fabric, and more fabric! They actually used to call this style a leg-of-mutton sleeve, with a fullness around the shoulder that tapered down towards the wrists. Yumi Katsura’s 1982 gown for Saks is the Victorian idea in a fancier fabric: buttoned to the chin, sleeves puffed at the shoulder and tight at the wrist, and a train that goes on for days.
If you were an 80s bridesmaid, don’t think you wouldn’t get a puff sleeve too. Nobody was safe. Lorrie Deb ran this in the same 1983 issue of Bride’s, “For your most Important Day” (their capital I, not ours), with a bridesmaid in mauve taffeta whose sleeves are, if anything, bigger than the bride’s.
The high-collar, tiered-lace look was just everywhere. Tamara’s called theirs the “romantic renaissance bridal collection” in Bride’s in the fall of 1982, and the ad is nothing but a lace collar, a lace yoke, sheer sleeves, and one long-stem rose. Four Southern California mall locations, if you were wondering where to find it.
Ruffles, Poufs, and the Late-Eighties Reveal
Ahhh, the late 80s! This was a revealing yet welcome look after all those high necklines and crazy poufy sleeves. This Demetrios Sposabella gown from 1988 is strapless (rare for the decade) with a bubble overskirt gathered up like a curtain, over a straight skirt and train. I think this might be the ONLY strapless dress in the whole article, which tells you something. The ruffle didn’t leave, though. It grew into the pouf.
One woman who thrifted an eighties gown: “It looks like the designer compensated for the lack of a 25 foot train by adding multiple layers of lace ruffles at the hem, and some extra bows, including the giant one in the back. There is enough fabric and trim in there to make multiple complete wedding gowns.” Someone on the same thread called it “a rococo garden of cake.”
Oh no, just when you think the puffy sleeves were gone, they make a striking comeback! This is an actual 1987 dress from Pronuptia (the bridal chain that was on every British high street), on loan to that same Ely Cathedral exhibition. Ruffled collar, puff sleeves, drop waist, ruffled tier at the hem, and bows holding up the swags. If you were a 1987 bride in England, this was the dress in the shop window.
This wasn’t an actual wedding dress, but Madonna’s dress from her “Like a Virgin” video. It still looks cool! Boy Toy belt and all. She wore it again at the first MTV Video Music Awards that September, on top of a giant wedding cake. It lives in a Hard Rock display case now.
Satin, Beads, Pearls, and Sequins (Ideally All Four)
Actually, this dress is very elegant even by today’s standards. Puff sleeves, a beaded lace bodice, and a train that runs off the bottom of the page. (Eighties satin also photographed like a mirror. Check your parents’ album for the glare.)
A bride whose mother sewed her gown remembered every detail: “It was oyster Italian satin with short puffed sleeves and rosettes around the tops of the sleeves. It has a sweetheart neckline with pearl trim, tight waist and ballgown. The only fancy trim was at the bottom hem which had pretty rhinestone and seedpearl trim in a 2 inch band. Oh and there were three small bows down the back to hide the bustle.” Someone else scrolling a 1985 Modern Bride: “Almost every dress reminds me of Bo and Hope’s wedding from Days of Our Lives. I looked it up and sure enough, it happened in 1985!”
Is this a coat of armor or a wedding dress? Wow, that thing looked heavy! Ilissa (a Demetrios label) beaded this one from the collar to the floor.
The beading is usually the part daughters keep. “The bodice is hand beaded lace and is so perfect!” one wrote about her mom’s 1989 dress. Another, mid-alteration: “Downsizing the beadwork on the front is also something I hadn’t thought of… making it a bit more minimal would definitely tone down the 80s vibe. Fashion in the 1980s: more is more ;)”
Bows. Everywhere.
It’s wild to think Oscar de la Renta wedding dress designs went from this bow extravaganza to what the brand does today. A bow on each shoulder, a bow at the small of the back, a bow on the hat. And yes, the “butt bow” is back right now, so hold that thought.
“There’s a giant bow for the butt I’ve taken off already. Lol,” wrote one bride updating her mom’s silk gown for a beach wedding. Our favorite, from someone explaining why a dress was early nineties and not eighties: “I mean, it doesn’t even have a bow on the butt! It’s practically hospital scrubs!”
Tea-Length, Hi-Lo, and the “Country” Bride
Simple and still chic. The headpiece is another story, however. Tea-length and the hi-lo hem (short in front, long in back) were the daytime and garden option, and Susan Lane’s label was named Country Elegance. Cream lace, ivory pumps, a garden gate. You could wear this to a wedding today, minus the headpiece.
About those headpieces (we gave the hair its own article): “That could be the 1980’s or the 1880’s…that hat!” one commenter wrote under a photo of a mom’s dress. A 1988 bridesmaid remembered “these hairpieces we called ‘ufo headgear.'” And one daughter reported that her mom, married in 1986, “even had a veil with a huge light up headpiece.” A light-up headpiece! We have questions. (If you want the pearl-band look now, minus the lights, these Etsy shops still make it.)
“My own wedding dress was cut the same way. A tea length dress,” a 1987 bride wrote. Another woman who wears vintage eighties dresses now: “The wide neckline, fitted Basque waist, and tea length full skirts all look really good on some of us.”
The Late-Eighties Mermaid (and the Sleek Sheath)
Long sleeves, sheer neckline, mermaid flare, and a train that keeps going. Compare it to the same label’s ruffled bride from 1983 at the top of the page. Five years later the skirt is fitted through the hip and the train is somehow even longer. Very Dynasty.
Oh wow, this dress is stunning!! A beaded column, a crown, and not a puff sleeve in sight. One commenter on that 1985 Modern Bride thread: “Maybe just me, but those dresses had so much more character than today’s, where everything seems to be more or less a corset topped sleeveless or strapless clone. Granted, the headbands, accessories, and poofy shoulders were over the top, but each was unique.”
Your Bridesmaids Wore Jewel-Tone Satin (and Are Still Mad)
We can’t forget what 80s bridesmaids had to go through. Royal blue, hot pink, and purple satin. Your bridesmaids are still mad. Joseph Gowns, 1987, and if you were a bridesmaid that year you know how this dress felt (crunchy) and where it is now (nowhere).
“Very 80s style wedding in 1987. I wore a white summer satin bell-sleeved gown with a lace bodice and belled skirt (around $1000 from a bridal boutique), and a headband-style veil studded with small pearls. Hubs wore a white tux jacket with tails, black slacks, and apricot – yes, apricot, cummerbund and bow tie. Bridesmaids wore summer satin apricot dresses. All in about $10k, paid mostly by my parents.”
— via Reddit.com
Apricot! Someone else remembered her bridesmaid color as “frosted cranberry.” And under a 1985 magazine spread: “Why would anyone have bridesmaids with bows in the middle of their forehead?”
Here is a trend that still exists today: matching your bridesmaid dresses to the groomsmen’s ties. Santana Ties dyed them to Bill Levkoff’s fabrics in 1987, swatch strip and all.
The Flower Girl Matched
The flower girls are still trying to find their way out from all those ruffles. Prashker’s 1988 ad promised “Dresses and Gloves available at many fine stores,” and there was not a single flower girl in America in 1988 who was allowed to skip the gloves. (Today’s flower girl dresses have calmed down considerably.)
And Yes, It’s All Coming Back
And this is more than a nostalgia trip. Refinery29’s report from Bridal Fashion Week this April said it plainly: “I’ve noticed a lot of puff skirts, puff sleeves, puff peplums, puff everything this season! The ’80s are having a comeback.” Drop waists, big bows, basque waists: all back on the racks.
Reddit called it first. “Women that were 80’s and 90’s brides are suddenly going to find their big old wedding dresses fashionable again. It always comes back.” Another commenter, under a photo of a mom’s dress: “Dresses like this are now appearing in the bridal shops!” And our favorite: “80s wedding dresses were very cool and memorable and no one can convince me otherwise.”
Did your mom get married in the 80s? Then GO FIND THE DRESS. Even if you never wear it, that lace and beading is worth saving (our guide to cleaning and preserving a wedding dress works on a 1985 gown too). Put on the 1980s wedding playlist while you’re at it, and make her tell you the whole story!
“Whenever I see stuff like this I just imagine your daughter posting to reddit in 30 years saying “When I told my mom I was engaged, she offered to let me wear her wedding dress. I was apprehensive because there were NO GIGANTIC POOFY SLEEVES” :)”
— via Reddit.com
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