Si­mone Sant-Ghu­ran

I'm no slave to fash­ion, but it's def­i­nite­ly one of my guilty plea­sures, and to say that I en­joy dis­cussing it is cer­tain­ly an un­der­state­ment. That's why it's such a thrill for me to bring you this week's col­umn on the lat­est bridal fash­ion trends for 2010. Last year, we saw bridal gowns in­spired by the flap­per era of the 1920s and by old Hol­ly­wood glam­our, as well as a pro­fu­sion of 1960s-styled maxi-dress­es, cold-shoul­ders, em­pire-waist and god­dess gowns. This year, if I had to choose five words to de­scribe the un­der­ly­ing themes of most of the in­ter­na­tion­al bridal de­sign­ers' col­lec­tions I'd use these: "ethe­re­al," "ro­man­tic," "in­di­vid­u­al­is­tic," "dra­mat­ic" and "mod­ern."

Here are some of this year's hottest trends:

Gown colour

The trend this year is nude-coloured and pas­tel-coloured bridal gowns, such as the pink and sil­very-blue ones seen in Monique Lhuil­li­er's 2010 col­lec­tion and the pale green, grey and pink ones in Ve­ra Wang's. In her spring, 2010 col­lec­tion, Car­oli­na Her­rera fea­tured gowns in pale celadon and pink satin, as well as a stun­ning black and white bridal gown with pale blue bows down the back.�

De­tail­ing

Frothy skirts, sheer cap sleeves, tight lace bodices, and ap­pliqu�s that flut­tered air­i­ly off gowns were seen in Monique Lhuil­li­er's 2010 col­lec­tion. Ve­ra Wang's 2010 col­lec­tion fea­tured over­sized-bows, crys­tal ac­cents, coloured sash­es and gowns co­cooned with fab­ric lay­er­ing, drap­ing, folds and pleat­ing. Flo­ral un­der­lays and na­ture-in­spired mo­tifs are al­so go­ing to be very pop­u­lar this year. Hand-made touch­es will al­so be in vogue, such as was seen in Car­oli­na Her­rera's Spring, 2010 col­lec­tion, which fea­tured hand-paint­ed flow­ers and cut-out fab­ric "petals" on gowns. De­sign­er Reem Acra al­so lasered de­signs in gold-leaf on­to gowns.

This year, many fash­ion-for­ward dress­es will al­so have black bead­ing, black em­broi­dery or black sash­es. The "LWD"–The Lit­tle White Dress–is go­ing to be the over­whelm­ing favourite this year. Os­car de la Renta's Spring, 2010 bridal col­lec­tion fea­tured many of them. Most were very rem­i­nis­cent of the un­der­stat­ed and clas­sic "Jack­ie-O" look. His LWDs were most­ly strap­less and some were drop-waist, cock­tail-style dress­es. Am­sale Aber­ra, an­oth­er pop­u­lar cou­ture bridal de­sign­er based in New York, al­so sent some LWDs down the run­way in her Spring, 2010, col­lec­tion.

Style

Asym­met­ric, hal­ter and cold-shoul­der neck­lines were wide­ly seen in the 2010 col­lec­tions of many bridal de­sign­ers. Pop­u­lar sil­hou­ettes were the trum­pet skirt and the mer­maid gowns. Many de­sign­ers al­so fea­tured tiered and ruf­fled skirts, as well as bolero jack­ets, such as the black lace ones which were in Car­oli­na Her­rera's col­lec­tion.

Ac­ces­sories

The much short­er, face-fram­ing "bird cage veil" will be all the rage this year. Pill­box hats were seen on Os­car de la Renta's run­way, and var­i­ous types of hats were al­so used by Car­oli­na Her­rera. Bridal jew­el­ry will be bold­er and chunki­er this year, and will fea­ture "bib" and lay­ered neck­laces. Short gloves (es­pe­cial­ly in black) will al­so make a come­back, as well as the use of plumes and crys­tals in hair ac­ces­sories.