The "IN" Thing

Wedding Dress
The International Herald Tribune
Ruth La Feria-New York

I bought this newspaper when on the road and found it fascinating so I thought I'd pass it on to all of my brides.

The gown was almost wanton-fluid but curvy with a neckline that plummeted dangerously.  "It makes me feel sexy and beautiful" said Natasha DaSilva, who slipped it on for a fitting last week. Cut away at the rear to reveal a tatoo at the small of her back, the dress suggested a languorous night in the honeymoon suite.

Except that DaSilva, who will married in Long Island in September, plans to wear it at the altar.

"Why not?" she asked.  "I want to look back in 20 years and feel like I looked hot on my wedding day."

"Brides today absolutely want to look sexy and glamourous," said Mara Urshel, an owner and the president of Kleinfeld, the venerable Manhattan bridal salon.

"Young women increasingly look to the red carpet for style ideas," said Millie Martini Bratten, the editor in chief of Brides magazine. "When they marry they they want to be the celebrity of their own event."

Today the prevailing fantasy is no longer, " 'I want to be a princess in my ball gown,' "Dias said.  "A lot of women have done that already for their prom." Dias, who is based in Los Angeles, accommodates clients' desires for dresses that echo runway trends with halter tops and off-the-shoulder gowns that are more emphatically provocative than the strapless looks that have become commonplace.

Similar considerations prompted the designer Monique Lhuillier, a favorite in Hollywood, to fashion a dress with an Empire bodice, wide lace straps and a wispy chiffon skirt - features more often found in a nightgown.

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