Skip the White Mini: Meet the Cool City Brides Wearing Suits on Their Wedding Days

When most brides imagine what they’re going to walk down the aisle in, they’ll conjure up an idea of a white wedding dress. Whether it’s princess-like, simple, sleek, or modern, the choice is left up to their personal style, and wedding dresses are the stereotypical outfit for those saying “I do.” Since the beginning of wedding fashion, there have always been a few cool disruptors and sartorial innovators who love nothing more than to challenge our fashion norms and force us to think about occasionwear in a new way. Enter the bridal suit.

From Carrie Bradshaw’s second wedding look in the Sex and the City movie to the iconic Bianca Jagger, well-dressed women throughout history have been throwing their cathedral-length trains to the wind and ditching 20-pound gowns in favor of pantsuits and buttoned-up blazers. Women’s suits aren’t exactly new—they have roots in the early 20th century when icons like Marlene Dietrich began challenging gender norms with pantsuits. In the wedding space, though, the idea has only been around for just over 50 years. Bianca Jagger made waves in 1971 when she married Mick Jagger in a white Yves Saint Laurent tuxedo, and more recently, stars like Solange Knowles and Amal Clooney have continued to wear suits on their wedding days.

“With bridal tailoring, the emotional significance and personal storytelling are front and center,” explains Farida Raafat—a master tailor and founder of Dalya, a bespoke women’s suit brand. Raafat, who previously worked in the menswear space at iconic tailoring-first maisons like Tom Ford, found herself craving a woman’s perspective when it came to her everyday wardrobe and, by extension, the garments she and her friends would wear when walking down the aisle. Since Raafat launched the brand in 2022, bespoke suiting has become the brand’s bread-and-butter, and wedding suiting is coming in hot. “Every detail is intimate, as the piece often reflects not only the bride’s personality but also the unique aspects of her relationship and vision for her day,” she says.