Bridal Fashion Week can feel like a tulle-covered, pearl-coated island separate from the rest of the fashion cycle. Wedding attire designers show their collections more than a month after the runways wrap up in New York, Milan, and Paris. Second, wedding dress trends are not always as obvious as spotting a fresh It-Shoe or a rising color palette.
But first impressions can be misleading—and there's more to Spring 2025's upcoming wedding dress trends than just new shades of white. I spent the past week attending Bridal Fashion Week’s Spring 2025 shows—my sixth year as a fashion editor on the wedding dress circuit—and found the market to be more in tune with fashion week proper than ever. Legendary players in the space (such as the Elie Saabs and Monique Lhuilliers) embraced recent runway codes from exaggerated bow embellishments to the return of the drop-waist dress; so did newcomers like Lein Studio and insider favorites like Markarian.
It’s not a one-sided conversation. Katie Rowland, the womenswear, kidswear, and fine jewelry buying director at Mytheresa, has noticed an explosion of runway designers getting bridal-curious starting in their 2024 collections. Contemporary labels like Self-Portrait and Rebecca Vallance have added little white dresses poised for pre-bridal events and rehearsal dinners to their overall lineups; this season, New York Fashion Week darling Tanner Fletcher joined the bridal calendar with its first gender-neutral wedding collection. The shift has blurred the line between high fashion and the high fashion bride.
Rowland tells me that the whole movement reflects a sea change in how brides prepare for their big day. One wedding dress is just the minimum, and “brides are having more fun with each dress.” As wedding celebrations extend from a single ceremony to a weekend of events, there are more varied dress codes to consider and aesthetics to play with. (You don't just need the aisle-worthy, full-train gown; you need the high-neck halter for the night before and the sequined playsuit for the party after.) Bridal Fashion Week designers are now meeting the moment.
Spring 2025 is thus a season where (almost) anything goes, from crystal-embellished mini dresses to lingerie-inspired corset gowns. Scroll on for five wedding dress trends that stood out from the collections—plus, ways to shop each look, for the brides who want to tie the knot with their favorites now.
Take a Bow (Or Several)
Ribbons and bows were already as commonplace in bridalwear as rose bouquets and Chantilly lace. Then, 2023's girlhood aesthetic trend happened, and bows exploded all over Bridal Fashion Week. Honor tied dainty bows along a curving, asymmetric seam on a sheath dress; Viktor & Rolf fastened bows big, medium, and small along the backs of its ballgowns; Amsale dotted the closures of its most classic designs with miniature bows for the bride who only wants a sample of the trend. At Tanner Fletcher and Monique Lhuillier, models swapped veils for ribbons in their hair—or doubled up with both.
Wedding days are a gift, and the bow trend says Bridal Fashion Week designers want their Spring 2025 clients to dress like it. Of course, brides-to-be already can with ribbon-topped dresses from Markarian to Valentino—plus bow-adorned accessories, including heels (by Mach & Mach), headbands (by Sandy Liang), and hair bows (by Jennifer Behr).
Drop Waist Dresses
Not a day of Bridal Fashion Week went by without a parade of drop-waist dresses—they're the definitive silhouette of the Spring 2025 collections. The style appeals to the designers and the brides who will eventually wear them. Lein Studio, Safiyaa, and Monique Lhuillier (among dozens of others) got a natural lane to play with contrasting fabrics and textures between the tight-fitting bodices and the more exaggerated, low-starting skirts. Brides who choose a drop-waist dress still have the nuptial elegance of a full skirt and a long train—with the added bonus of a main character, body-hugging fit through the waist. Whether you're holding out for Spring 2025's official collections or trying the dresses on sale now from designers like Danielle Frankel and Interior, this wedding dress trend is the best of both worlds.
Little White Outfit Change
Many brides aren't just saying yes to the dress anymore. "They are buying multiple looks: one for the civil ceremony and then one for the ceremony with friends, one for the party after, one for the rehearsal dinner, etc.," Rowland says.
Spring 2025's collections included a range of minis and midis for pre-wedding events for the bride who wants to spend her big weekend like Miley Cyrus at the 2024 Grammys—with five major looks instead of just one. Markarian and Safiyaa had the refracted light of a disco ball in mind when they released high square-neck sheath dresses coated in semi-translucent crystals. Then, Tanner Fletcher's debut collection included a structured cream mini with a foldover collar and a full skirt—paired with a bow headband for the bride who wants to experiment with extra trends alongside her outfit changes.
To shop a second (or third) look now, bridal capsules from everyday designers like Staud and Rixo deliver on the dance-floor friendly hemlines and dramatic details.
Dreamy Draping
Over-the-top floral embroidery and beaded embellishments aren't the only ways for brides to tap into their romantic sides. Draped dresses returned to the Spring 2025 bridal collections after bubbling up in ready-to-wear collections from Bottega Veneta to Maria Moscone last year. Just like on the runway, each bridal rendition is dripping with the old-world elegance of a mythical Greek goddess brought to life.
Some, like Hera Couture's, came with gathered removable tulle sleeves; others, like Justin Alexander and Markarian, added extra visual interest through sky-high slits and layered skirts. Andrew Kwon also showed just how far the Hellenistic look can go, with a semi-sheer, strapless gown with criss-crossing draped tulle over the bodice that extended into a dramatically long train. For the bride who can't wait until next year's collections finally arrive, designers including The Bar and Alex Perry already carry draped gowns of their own.
Corset Core
Some seasons, A-listers' impact on Bridal Fashion Week manifests in near-replicas of the celebrity and royal wedding dresses people couldn't stop talking about. When Kate Middleton became Princess Kate in 2011, lace-sleeved A-line gowns were coronated as a major bridal trend. In 2018 and 2019, there was a rise in Meghan Markle-inspired wedding dresses with bateau necklines. And 2024's first collections included several satin halter gowns with Sofia Richie-Grainge energy. But for Spring 2025, designers are channeling Hollywood—and fashion history—through more subtle means.
After lingerie dressing took over the 2024 awards season, helped along by Emily Ratajkowski, Doja Cat, and the Kardashian-Jenners, corset and bustier gowns appeared in Bridal Fashion Week collections from Amsale to Wona Concept. Mytheresa's Rowland considers the emphasis on boudoir-appropriate silhouettes a tribute to the late Vivienne Westwood, who subverted the corset into a symbol of female empowerment. Bridal designers with aesthetics from bohemian (Claire Pettibone) to all-out dramatic (Galia Lahav) are thinking along the same wavelength, topping their gowns with semi-sheer, draped, and embellished corsets.
