Beauty & Fashion
BY RENATA ARON
CHOOSING YOUR WEDDING DRESS Renata Aron is 2020’s winner of the Fashion category at the Best of Brazil in Europe Awards. She is the founder of Nothing To Wear Image Consultancy and the NTW app, as well as being on the board of AICI Portugal and having created the Impulse Method. Wedding days are one of the most important days of a woman’s life. Her wedding day is the day where she will be the centre of attention. As well as all of the planning and details that a marriage requires, I believe that the thing that causes a bride the most stress is choosing her dress, her hairstyle, and her make-up. Many women have had dreams of what their wedding dress will look like for years before they even get engaged, just like in the fairy tales. Others have endless doubts, and don’t know where to begin with choosing their look. I definitely agree that choosing your wedding dress is no easy task. This is where image consultancy comes in! The first step is to understand the personal taste of the bride. You need to understand everything that she likes and has dreamed of right down to the smallest detail. Understanding the person’s personality is also an essential part of the process. All women have different styles and tastes in fashion. That's why it’s important to respect those individual tastes when searching for a wedding dress. For example, you need to know if the bride is a romantic, a modern woman, traditional... every detail is important in this process. The second step is understanding the details of the wedding day – you need to know the location, the time of the wedding, the number of guests. I'm sure you’re thinking, is that really necessary? Of course it is! Imagine if the bride is wearing a thin high heel and is getting married in a beautiful garden. How do you expect her to walk across the lawn in those shoes? It wouldn’t be easy! Understanding the schedule and style of the wedding is essential to make sure you don’t make any faux pas in the bride’s dress code. A lot of times, the bride has an idealistic view of what she wants to wear, but she hasn’t thought about all the details.
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Knowing the bride’s budget for her dream dress is also incredibly important, as showing her dress options which do not fall within her budget is only going to frustrate her and make the process more stressful than it already is. The third step is to understand the bride’s body shape, so that you can perfectly match her dress to her body type and ensure that she feels secure, confident, and comfortable. And the colour? Ah Renata, wedding dresses are white, I hear you say. But not always! Did you know that there are various shades of white? There are beiges, off-whites, and who says you can’t use any other colour? The colour of the make-up, all the details matter. Increasingly, modern brides are moving away from wedding traditions in favour of highly personalised ceremonies which better reflect the couple, and that includes breaking the rules around the wedding dress. Amongst the preferred colours these days are lilacs, pinks, blues and even yellows. The British actress Elizabeth Taylor wore a yellow dress and a floral tiara when she married in 1964! Even if you don’t want to go for a more unique colour palette, through your personal colouring we can work out if you have a warmer skin tone and therefore will work best in a pearlier white, or if you have a cooler skin tone and so will suit icy whites better. This test also helps to choose the colour of the bride’s make-up. You might be thinking, wow, what a lot of information, is that really necessary? No, it’s not necessary, and I didn’t have an image consultant for my wedding day 17 years ago, in fact, I didn’t even know they existed. However, it is a job that is increasingly sought out by brides for their dream day, as it helps with the whole process, and allows them to ensure they will feel secure and confident, as well as helping them to find the dress of their dreams.