Soon the wedding season starts. We have written here already about eco-friendly locations, sustainable wedding traditions as well as green gift ideas and hopefully inspired you. One thing is still missing on our blog: the sustainable wedding dress. Who now thinks of scratchy materials and outdated cuts, is wrong! Eco wedding dresses can keep up for a long time with classical bridal fashion. For ecologically friendly and fair wedding attire similar criteria apply as for sustainable fashion in general: It is about natural fibers sourced from ecological cultivation, recycled materials and innocuous colorings as well as fair production (get to know more in the first and second part of our more general blogposts about sustainable fashion).

However, there are even other aspects how a wedding dress becomes more sustainable of which you have maybe not thought of yet:

• New color, new dress
  White natural fibers can be dyed very well (with ecologically friendly color 😉 ). In this manner you can use your wedding dress also after the celebration
• Choose the cut consciously 
  If you decide not to choose a princess’s dress for your wedding, your dress is wearable after the wedding – depending on the cut either in everyday life or festive occasions (and if you still dye it, in addition, your wedding dress is extremely lasting!)
• Recycling and Upcycling
  Another option is to change the cut to fit everyday life or to reshape old wedding clothes (from Granny or Second-hand) – so you already dispose of something old 😉 )

If you prefer to buy a new dress, look for eco labels. We like to introduce three eco labels for bridal gowns and a clean conscience.

Made in Germany

Rike Winterberg has built her bridal fashion label elementar totally eco. The natural and vegan materials come from certified biological cultivation and are made exclusively in Germany. Fair terms of employment and short transportation routes are thereby guaranteed. Even the lace at elementarily is made of cotton, in contrary to the usually used synthetic fibers. Other specific features: you can have old clothes upcycled to become your individual wedding clothes.

Wedding greetings from Nepal

Who likes it a little more extravagant, finds exclusive sustainable evening gowns from sustainably sourced materials with Sanyukta Shrestha. With the unique vintage-inspired clothes you are not only a wonderful bride, but support at the same time Nepalese women. The cotton is weaved by hand and the bamboo materials come from the NGO Tulsi Mehar Mahila Ashram which a native country offers to socially underprivileged women as well as allows to them sick person’s care, own income and education for her children – and already since 1927!

Kissed from the Californian sun

The Californian Eco label Reformation is characterized by its feminine style. The label does not offer only wedding dresses but a nice collection with simple cuts also fitting a lot of occasions after the wedding. Of course, you also get classical wedding models with lace and tulle. Feminine style wants to design fashion for every “form of woman”: very small and big women will make a find here guaranteed. All processed materials are categorised from A to E wheras A stand for the most ecologically friendly textiles and E is practically never used. At least 75% of all used materials belong to the categories A and B. You find stores in the different US states to try on your wedding dress quite simply on site!

Find the greenest places for your wedding:

Extraordinary locations for a perfect green wedding

The original work of the wedding photography is by Luca Vieri:

Luca Vieri: Wedding in Borgomaro at Relais del Maro

Luca Vieri: Countryside wedding at Relais del Maro