Bad bridesmaid dresses are something of a cultural cliché, with fluffy embellishment and saccharin-sweet color palettes cementing the stereotype. But for brides eager to step away from this commonplace approach and pivot toward more modern styles, there’s a world of choice. Having your bridesmaids wear dresses that complement both their personalities and your own wedding gown is a win-win situation, with everyone feeling their most confident and the portraits will turn out far chicer. 

Whether your bridal party is on the smaller or larger side, finding bridesmaid dresses that punctuate this momentous occasion shouldn’t be a chore. Begin with a color scheme and decide whether you want to uniformly dress your bridesmaids in coordinating designs or have each person wear an individual style. The latter can be an especially nice choice for ensuring they’ll wear the dress again for years to come. 

Ahead, discover some of our favorite designs from brands like Markarian, Jonathan Simkhai, and Ulla Johnson ahead to kickstart your search, with nary a fluffy tulle gown in sight.

Floral Bridesmaid Dresses

Those walking the streets of Lower Manhattan on Saturday may have noticed a small commotion taking place at City Hall, as hundreds of people swarmed around police officers escorting a mysterious figure down the steps. On closer inspection, this apparent criminal mastermind appeared somewhat familiar. 

No, it wasn’t Donald Trump—even though, ironically, there has been a media circus all week in the exact same spot, as the public awaits the possible indictment of Trump in the ongoing “hush money” case. Turns out it involved another saga of (alleged) treachery and deceit. The heckling crowds were all hired extras for Joker: Folie à Deux, and the figure at the center was Lady Gaga, offering the first full-length look at her take on the character of Harley Quinn.

Starring opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the sequel to Todd Phillips’s Oscar-nominated box office smash Joker, which told the origin story of one of Batman’s greatest foes, Gaga appeared to be fully in the zone as Phoenix’s henchwoman and love interest. (As anyone who’s followed Gaga’s acting career knows, when it comes to diving into a new role, she’s nothing if not committed.) NBC News reported that the film crew had enlisted around 700 extras to play protestors and that explosions were also planned; in pictures of the filming, the crowd booed and shouted as Gaga appeared to be escorted into a courthouse, turning around to furiously raise a fist at them. 

Street stylers are roaming around Dongdaemun Plaza in a casual-cool uniform of simple basics like baseball caps, blazers, jeans, and sneakers that mix elements of streetwear and academia. Using the  Street Style Trend Tracker to look back, we found that stylish Tokyoites have been into this look for a few seasons now; further proof that these cities are making fashion trends that travel well. 

For their own celebration, the pair brought on chef Nasrin Rejali, who moved from Iran to New York in 2016 with her three children. Rejali, who runs her own catering company, cooks her grandmother’s traditional recipes—but with the occasional New York twist. She can’t get the same fish as in Iran from the Caspian Sea, she explained, but has found that local sea bass is quite similar; for this dinner, she chose arctic char. Also on the menu were stuffed grape leaves, Persian noodles, herb frittata, and yogurt with cardoons, while the cuisine’s characteristic freshness was achieved through zingy herbs ranging from tarragon, saffron, parsley, dill, and cilantro. 

Defending Japanese and world champion Kaori Sakamoto entered the free skate in first place, nearly six points ahead of Haein Lee of Korea, the current Four Continents champion. Point fractions separated Lee (73.62) from Mai Mihara of Japan (73.46) and US champion Isabeau Levito (73.03); the other American women, Bradie Tennell and Amber Glenn, were in eighth and tenth place respectively after the short program, and Loena Hendrickx, the 2022 world silver medalist, seemed shocked to find herself in fifth. In the free skate those fractions scrambled, with Hendrickx onto the podium as bronze medalist. Because Glenn moved down to 12th place and Tennell to 15th, Levito needed to finish no lower than third to guarantee three spots for US women at next year’s Worlds, but a fall on her opening jump kept her in fourth place. Mihara, too, made mistakes that pushed her down to fifth. But Haein Lee held on to second place and became the first Korean since Yuna Kim in 2013 to medal at Worlds. (Her impressive young teammate Chaeyeon Kim moved up from 12th to sixth place.) 

Levito, Mihara, and even Lee are small, delicate skaters. Kaori Sakamoto is sturdier and more athletic, with intense speed and a fearless double axel. Her jumps have great ice coverage. All that was enough to keep her in first place over her competitors (and her sobs afterward showed how much stress she had had to harness to win).

The dominant coaches and choreographers in ice dance are Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, who, along with their colleague Romain Haguenauer, have trained many of the world’s top ice dancers at the Gadbois Centre in Montreal. Not all of them were in Saitama (last year’s world and Olympic champions, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron; Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker, whose injuries caused them to withdraw in favor of Gadbois skaters Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko). Some of them have retired from competition and now coach at Gadbois (US champion and Olympic bronze medalist Madison Hubbell; her fiancé, former Spanish champion Adrían Díaz; two-time Olympic champion Scott Moir). Eight of Dubreuil and Lauzon’s teams were competing in Saitama. (Dubreuil also choreographed Sakamoto’s free skate, to “Elastic Heart” by Sia.)

This weekend, you’ll find them spread out over an enormous 30,000-square-foot space in Skylight at Essex Crossing. There are intricate, colorful rugs woven using techniques that date back to the 16th century, chairs made in the Carpathian mountains with sheep wool cushions, and handmade beeswax candles. Modern ceramics abound—many from collectives in Opishnia, known as the pottery capital of Ukraine—as do accessories inspired by traditional Ukrainian dress: Chichka makes beaded jewelry based on the national costume of the Lemkivshchyna, whereas womenswear designer Bevza presents earrings that take cues from spikelet ornamentation worn by the people of Tripillia.

Then, there are the companies hyper-focused on the immense potential of Ukraine’s future: a state-of-the-art robotic hand from Esper Bionics, for example, as well as Solo rings with lab-grown diamonds from Kyiv. (It’s the largest plant of its kind in Europe.) “The main goal is to show Ukraine’s creative economy—that we are a great nation with great creatives,” says Pagava. “I want the makers to get opportunities from this.” Indeed, the name “I Am U Are” itself is intended to evoke the common denominators between cultures—and serve as a reminder that those of us in the United States are not so different from those in Ukraine. Everything is also for sale, with the curators hoping the show provides an economic boost to these creators.

Below, find Vogue’s highlights from the fair, which runs through March 26.

A father and his two sons—Mykola, Vasyl, and Dmytro Boruky—run Hutsul Autentica, a store that specializes in the wooden crafting techniques of Ukraine’s Hutsulshchyna Region. The fair displays several of their remarkably ornate candelabras, adorned with folksy motifs, figures, and symbols. (For those not in New York: Hutsul Authentica is also on Etsy.)

This season, Spanish designer Carlota Barrera evoked Asturias, her homeland: “I’m from the north. It seemed interesting to me to go back to those seaside roots, and to develop the collection from a less romantic point of view, but with something more related to the solitude of the night,” she said.

Upheaval, the video she made with director Pablo Curto, is inspired by Luchino Visconti’s film La Terra Trema. “It’s about those night scenes where you can’t hear anything but the sound of the nets, the clothes rubbing against each other, the wind and the water. The collection is also a tribute to the women who make the nets. They build something basic for fishing, but apparently they are not given the value they deserve,” Barrera explained.

From that starting point, Barrera twisted her signature tailoring, updating it, for example, by layering rope trousers on top of other pants, or by combining workwear and fishing details, such as accessories with shells and carabiner hooks. For materials, she used natural textiles, such as cotton, tencel, and wool, with technical fabrics made of recycled polyester. “We worked with what we had leftover from other collections. For me, that’s the real sustainability,” she said.

Navy blue, moss green, and black formed the basis of the palette. Reflective finishes, beige or yellow (as in a fisherman’s mackintosh), give light to a proposal of high-waist trousers, tank tops with cut-outs, and oversize garments.

“We always compare what we do at the Elder Statesman factory to a chef’s kitchen,” Bailey Hunter, the label’s creative director, explained. “We always start with these ingredients—our yarns—and then we’re kind of in the kitchen, crafting and putting our own twist on the materials.” Not just any kitchen, of course. “It’s a Michelin star kitchen,” TES founder Greg Chait continues. “That’s why we’re all so intense and so into what we do.”

For fall, the duo decided to lean into the idea, collaborating with the Paris-based chef and artist Alix Lacloche, to create a lookbook-cookbook; meaning some pieces are inspired by recipes, and some recipes are inspired by their pieces. A khaki cashmere three-piece (that would be a sweater, shorts, and leggings) with tie-dyed polka dots had a corresponding recipe titled “peanut butter and mindfulness” made of Japanese bread topped with peanut butter and colorful “adaptogen and neutronic supplements,” while a pale blush light-as-air cashmere crochet dress had an accompanying meringue recipe.

Do not let the high concept distract from the fact that this is one of their most well-rounded collections yet. See the gorgeous plaid coat pieced together from two contrasting cashmere plaids—one in shades of blue and purple and the other in greens and reds—or the trucker-style jacket with a fuzzy collar detail and matching pleated trousers made from plaid corduroy
(woven, not printed). Another striped “suit” in shades of indigo, mint, terracotta, beige, and off-white, was made of a brushed wool with a wonderfully hair-y texture. “We’re calling it the ‘soft tailoring’ category,” Hunter explained. “It’s one of the things that we are collectively moving into; experimenting with wovens and our own proprietary fabrics.”

Not that they have abandoned the more “straightforward” knitwear that they’re known for, be that cardigans and maxi skirts in multi-color space-dyed yarns, a navy cable knit sweater and matching trouser featuring contrasting yellow and beige yarns, or a super cozy, bouclé-ish cashmere sweater made from a mix of green, khaki, and white yarns (worn as a scarf). The pièce de résistance was a robe coat with banded sleeves and hems, made from multi-color, multi-weave scraps found at their LA factory, and hand-patchworked together.

DON’T HOLD ME BACK
Model Akon Changkou takes a dip in a Michael Kors Collection dress; michaelkors.com. Leigh Miller earring.  Photographed at East Winds Cove, Port Antonio, Portland, Jamaica. Fashion Editor: Gabriella Karefa-Johnson.Photographed by Nadine Ijewere, Vogue, April 2023.