Fashion Friday: Grooms who dress to impress

Getting the right attire for your wedding can be as daunting for grooms as it is for brides, so we enlisted the help of bespoke tailor and wedding style ‘guru’, Roberto Revilla to give our guys his essential hints and tips.

A traditional formal wedding usually means either morning suit or dinner suit/black tie. But before you decide which style and colour suits your personality and wedding, here are a few things to consider:

Get the suit right

Start the process early (at least four months before the big day), especially if you're going tailored. If you're considering a traditional formal suit, you'll need to try on some ready-made/rental morning suits or dinner before you decide whether suits work for you or if a more custom fit option is needed. You want to look the best you can on your big day, right? 

If you usually struggle to find off-the-peg clothes that look great, then make the investment and go tailored. Dinner suits and morning suits are at the very least great outfits to have in the wardrobe but not need, rather than need and not have.

For great takes on traditional formal wear with an injection of personality, image search on sites like Pinterest and create your own mood board of favourite looks. This will make your life easier when you go to a store or tailor as you’ll be able to show ideas you like and see how best they can make them work for you.

Colour choices 

For morning coats and dinner suits, a navy version rather than traditional black could be worth considering – a contemporary twist and the shade also works better for gentlemen with a summer/spring type complexion (i.e. those of you that are fair of face).

Talk to your fiancée about any colour schemes/themes running through the wedding. As well as a buttonhole it’s a great idea to look at matching your tie/bow tie/cravat to say, the floral arrangements or bridesmaids' dresses. 

Shoes, shirts and everything in between

Treat your wedding as a game of two halves and have a shirt for each. One for the ceremony and then later on, change to a fresh one as you carry on celebrating and dancing the night away with your gorgeous bride. 

When it comes to shoes, I have had some men say, “Oh, I have a pair of black shoes I use for work, I’ll just polish those up and use them.” My advice is NO! Go and invest in a new pair for the big day. With a smart morning suit, a good pair of black oxfords or brogues will do the trick, whilst a dinner suit works well with a high-shine or patent leather pair.

Socks should be chosen last – some fresh new black or grey socks for your morning suit, black or navy (depending on trouser colour) for your dinner suit. Again no harm in having two pairs for the day. 

For more advice on accessories and how to create a more relaxed wedding day look, read our 2nd part blog from Roberto Revilla coming soon! 

To see the latest collections of suits and menswear from Roberto Revilla, visit: www.robertorevillalondon.com/

Fashion Friday: Grooms Love British Heritage

Wondering what fashion trends will be big for grooms this year? Then look no further than today’s Fashion Friday entry! Young’sHire, one of UK’s leading formalwear hire companies, have put together a trend report for 2015 looking into popular styles, colours and trends.

Gentlemen prefer kilts

The traditional highland wear is set to take centre stage over the coming year. Donning a kilt and sporran has always been seen as a statement of true Scottish identity. However new data from Young’s Hire has revealed that, incredibly, there are more proud Scots in England than in Scotland when it comes to selecting traditional Scottish dress. Depending on where you’re getting married, English cities such as London (21%), Leicester (12%), Manchester (10%) and Sheffield (10%) are all topping Dundee (9%). Surprisingly Aberdeen accounted for just two percent of the UK's highland wear hires - ranking well below Liverpool (6%), Bristol (6%), Newcastle (4%), and Cardiff (3%).

One of the key tartan trends, Grey Granite continues its tradition as a long standing favourite, followed closely by the Pride of Scotland check – a pattern that shows real national pride.

"It's always fascinating to take a more holistic look at the formalwear trends around the UK, and it's great to see that although people are really broadening their horizons when it comes to suiting-up for a special occasion, the traditional items like a top hat and tailcoat are still proving very popular. It’s great that traditional Scottish highland wear is still going strong and is growing in popularity across England,” comments Chris Burns, at Young's Hire.

Art deco chic

The traditional ‘top hat and tails’ look continues to be a favourite – classic elegance and opulence. There is however a North/South divide, with London topping the charts when going all out to impress their brides, while northern cities chose a more casual smart approach.

Adding character

To finish off the look, well chosen accessories enable grooms to express their personality and style. Cravats remain the top neck-piece for formal looks, with colours that tie in with the bride’s look – ivory, light pink and silver. Bold coloured dicki bow ties are the ‘laid back’ alternative for a more relaxed celebration.

About Young's Hire

Young'sHire has more than 195 locations across the UK, with concessions in the likes of Debenhams, Suit Direct and Jeff Banks. For more information, visit: http://www.youngs-hire.co.uk

Take inspiration from our dashing groom in the Behind the scenes photos from Bristol-based supplier Anne Harding.

We’d love to know what trends our South West grooms and brides prefer, so visit  our Twitter and  Facebook pages and share!

Fashion Friday: A Panorama of Wedding Dresses

With New York Fashion Week in its second day, we're already taking note of our favourite styles from the Spring/Summer 2015 collections - an abundance of white dresses to inspire our brides. Since travelling across the Atlantic isn't an option, we're watching the shows online and we've come up with an alternative solution - an exhibition dedicated to wedding dresses at the Victoria&Albert Museum, in London. 
  
Wedding Dresses 1775-2014 exhibition at the V&A offers a panorama of fashion stretching across two centuries of designer bridal wear. Displayed chronologically across two floors, you’ll find over 80 pieces – from romantic and glamorous to more extravagant wedding outfits.

Some of the most famous outfits in the gallery include the Dior wedding dress worn by Gwen Stefani in2002, the Duchess of Cornwall’s embroidered silk coat designed by Robinson and Valentine in 2005, and the couture Galliano gown created for KateMoss’s wedding in 2011.

                    

    

The exhibition hosts not only superb dresses and grooms wear but also accessories including shoes, jewellery, veils, garters and corsetry as well as fashion sketches and personal photographs. What better way to satisfy your curiosity about the history of garments than with an intimate insight into some of the wearers’ fashion choices and personal details.

The choice of designs reflects the changing attitude to wedding ceremonies and fashion over the years – early silk satin dresses in 1775,19^th century white muslin embroidered styles and modern innovative designs from Ian Stuart and Gareth Pugh.

  

WeddingDresses 1775-2014 takes place in the V&A Fashion Gallery, from 3 May 2014 – 15 March 2015. It is open daily 10:00 – 17:45 and until 22:00 every Friday, with tickets costing £12. You can also get your hands on the accompanying book, The Wedding Dress: 300 Years of Bridal Fashions by Edwina Ehrman (the exhibition curator) for £25.

Let us know if you're going to the exhibition and how it may influence your choice of wedding outfits. Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Photos: courtesy of V&A Wedding Dresses 1775-2014

V&A
T: 020 7942 2000

South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL

W: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/wedding-dress-1775-2014/