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\u2018We were going to do this our way\u2019 \u2026 Judith Winters\u2019 wedding day, Sheffield, 1997. Photograph: Mike Bateman<\/p>\nFor some people, wearing a big white dress on their wedding day feels as key as the rings. For others, less so.<\/p>\n
When Dua Lipa wore a Schiaparelli couture white skirt suit as she wed the actor Callum Turner in London last month, she joined a long line of women who have opted for a suit. Not least Bianca Jagger, whom Lipa was speculated to be emulating \u2013 the model and activist caused a stir when she got hitched to Mick Jagger in 1971, wearing a Yves Saint Laurent Le Smoking jacket and bias-cut skirt.<\/p>\n
Dua Lipa ties the knot with the actor Callum Turner at Marylebone town hall, London, in a custom Schiaparelli skirt suit. Photograph: Roland Hoskins\/dmg media Licensing<\/p>\n
In a way it\u2019s strange that it\u2019s still considered unusual, but the concept of the traditional wedding, dress and all, still holds immense sway. So who else has chosen a suit over a dress? And were they inspired by Jagger or simply cutting their own cloth? We asked readers for stories of their wedding-day suits.<\/p>\n
Tilly Burn, 31, works in local government, Moreton-in-Marsh\u2018I wanted to feel cool\u2019 \u2026 Tilly Burn on her wedding day. Photograph: Tanli Joy<\/p>\n
I had been toying with the idea of wearing a suit for a while \u2013 the reusability really appealed to me, and I realised that if I had a wedding dress it would hang forgotten in my wardrobe. I wanted something comfortable and, rather than just looking beautiful on my wedding day, I wanted to feel cool.<\/p>\n
Then I saw the iconic photo of Bianca Jagger and I just thought she looked so cool; effortlessly chic and sexy. A woman wearing a suit looks so powerful! So she became my inspiration.<\/p>\n
I tried on lots of different suits, from really expensive Vivienne Westwood ones to mid-range to much cheaper. My suit was by a brand called Me+Em, and I got the trousers tailored perfectly by a local suit-maker, Anwen Greenaway. I felt incredible.<\/p>\n
I was married nearly three years ago at the Manor House hotel, Moreton-in-Marsh, and have worn the suit at least 15 times since. On one memorable occasion I did a great John Lennon costume with it.<\/p>\n
Judith Winters, 55, archaeological editor, North Yorkshire\u2018We were going to do this our way\u2019 \u2026 Judith Winters\u2019 wedding day, Sheffield, 1997. Photograph: Mike Bateman<\/p>\n
We got married in 1997 at Sheffield register office. We were indie postgraduate students and had decided on a humanist wedding \u2013 it was definitely our statement of: \u201cWe\u2019re going to do this our way.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had never dreamed of the white-dress wedding but I did want to dress up for a change. So we took a trip to the fairly new Harvey Nichols store in Leeds. I chose a pale blue Nicole Farhi trouser suit that matched the occasion perfectly.<\/p>\n
I felt amazing in it. The trousers were really comfortable and it meant I could boogie on the dance floor and pick up the small children who were at the wedding.<\/p>\n
I have worn the suit several times since. It\u2019s still hanging in my wardrobe, looking for that niece to pass it on to.<\/p>\n
Justine Knowles, 57, osteopath, Birmingham<\/p>\n
I married my husband in 2003 at the register office in Birmingham. We had already been living together for five years. We had no desire to have a traditional wedding and wanted to be quite unconventional about it.<\/p>\n
We started with a list of things we could do without and a big, expensive white dress was top of it. I\u2019ve never been a girly-girl and a big white pouffy dress is just not really \u201cme\u201d. So I thought: \u201cWhy don\u2019t I just buy a white trouser suit like Bianca Jagger?\u201d I said: \u201cWe could go a bit more rock\u2019n\u2019roll with it.\u201d My husband played in bands and he wore a royal blue and red pinstripe Ozwald Boateng suit.<\/p>\n
I also didn\u2019t want to end up with something in my wardrobe that I\u2019d never wear again. My mum had put a token effort into getting me into a \u201cnice dress\u201d from the high street but even she admitted I looked better in the white tuxedo trouser suit I had picked out from Principles. It fitted perfectly and was only just over \u00a3100.<\/p>\n
I have worn it on other occasions since. It probably needs a good old dry clean.<\/p>\n
Sarah Morley, 59, graphic designer, near BathSarah Morley in her backless evening waistcoat. Photograph: Dominique Bader<\/p>\n
I was 44 when I married my husband, Chris, at the Roman baths in Bath in September 2011. I\u2019ve never really been a \u201cdress\u201d person, and I\u2019ve always admired women like Diane Keaton, Bianca Jagger and Katharine Hepburn, who showed how stylish a suit can be. Plus, I thought a suit would reflect that I was independent, strong and stylish. But the women\u2019s suits that I\u2019d been looking at didn\u2019t have that edge.<\/p>\n
I was at a loss until the day my husband-to-be had a fitting for his suit (he\u2019d always wanted a Savile Row suit and had thought if not now then when). While standing there as the tailor, Richard Anderson, measured him, I thought: \u201cDamn, of course this is the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
A man\u2019s suit, fitted to me, just had that frisson \u2013 there were no alterations to make it more feminine, and underneath I wore it with a traditional men\u2019s formal backless evening waistcoat … but with no shirt. It felt fantastic.<\/p>\n
Judith Mendes, 61, marine biologist, Jamaica\u2018The decision was a practical one\u2019 \u2026 Judith Mendes on her wedding day.<\/p>\n
The decision to wear a suit was a practical one resulting from a sentimental choice to get married where we met, at the coastguard base in Port Royal, Jamaica.<\/p>\n
At the time I was a graduate student studying coral reefs and doing my fieldwork right next door to the base. One Christmas, students were invited to a party and I met my now ex-husband there.<\/p>\n
So we decided, when we got married in 1992, that it would be nice to get married back there on a coastguard vessel. This required walking up and down a narrow gangway as well as over obstacles on the deck. Obviously a big pouffy dress was just not going to work.<\/p>\n
I got that suit off the rack. The shawl collar was made of lace and it had sequins and beading that sparkled in the sunlight. I really felt very beautiful in it.<\/p>\n
Helga Saint Pierre, 71, retired teacher, Halifax, Canada\u2018We were students with little money \u2018 \u2026 Helga Saint Pierre and her husband on their wedding day.<\/p>\n
We were students with little money when we got married in the 70s. We planned a simple secular celebration in Canada with university friends, a homemade meal and cake. The only splurge was champagne.<\/p>\n
I wore a dove-grey suit that I\u2019d bought off the rack and a small lily of the valley antique brooch that had been my first Christmas present from my soon-to-be husband. All in all, there was no spectacle and very little cost: $100 in 1976.<\/p>\n
Maxine O\u2019Neill, 61, location coordinator, Harrow\u2018I\u2019ve still got the hat\u2019 \u2026 Maxine O\u2019Neill on her wedding day in 1993. <\/p>\n
It was 1993. My husband and I both worked in the record industry and were not the kind of people who would wear traditional suits or meringue-style wedding dresses; it just wasn\u2019t really \u201cus\u201d.<\/p>\n
So my lovely mother-in-law, Belle, who was a dressmaker, made me a suit in cream silk, and I made a hat out of a feather boa. We got married in Newry, northern Ireland, where my husband is from.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have the suit any more because I left it at my parents for safekeeping and they moved and sent it to charity by accident. But I\u2019ve still got the hat.<\/p>\n
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For some people, wearing a big white dress on their wedding day feels as key as the rings.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-631179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}